My son was talking to one of his classmates at jujitsu the other day and the classmate said something to the fact that it was Christmas time.
To which my son said, “No, not yet.”
The other boy was thoroughly confused and my son said, “It’s not even Advent. Thanksgiving is first.”
He came home and asked his dad and me, “If it’s not Christmas yet, why is there Christmas stuff everywhere? We do Christmas stuff before Christmas, but why?”
His dad said, “Well, Buddy, if we want to be able to do anything Christmas-y outside of our house, we have to celebrate it culturally with everyone else. But, we do leave our Christmas stuff up long after everyone else has taken it down.”
For the past few days, I have received hundreds and hundreds of emails trying to get me to buy stuff for Christmas. Black Friday started a month ago. The Christmas lights went up in our neighborhood two weeks before Thanksgiving. There was a Christmas parade a week ago.
Commercialization swallows things up and strips away meaning and I truly do loath it.
This past weekend, we went to see the play, “A Christmas Carol.” Here in the south, rather than in DC, there was more of an emphasis on Christ with the singing of beautiful Christmas hymns. They even encouraged the audience to sing a long. “What Child is this, who, laid to rest, on Mary’s lap…”
Because I’m a sentimental fool, I teared up at the singing of those songs and was warmed by the focus on Christ. So starved are we for the true meaning of things, that even something like this can cause great emotion in me.
My older daughter said something the other day that I can’t stop thinking about. She said in reference to all this commercialization and the hurry to celebrate Christmas nearly two months before is time, “If you jump to Christmas and allow no preparation, it might be that Christmas is more about you than about Christ.”
That stings a bit, doesn’t it?
We are still in November, Catholic Pilgrims. We should still be praying for the souls of our dearly departed. Advent has yet to begin. The Church, in her wisdom, gives us liturgical seasons for a reason. Take advantage of the graces they give.
Have a blessed Tuesday.
