Decorating for Christmas

Just got through listening to another podcast from two local priests kicking back and sharing in their usual style. The two priests are like night and day, different. But they seem to get along rather well. You can see for yourself on iTunes, the latest Facing East.

Fr. P. always gets me going, but, I sit in silence and listen. Today he was hitting on people who decorate during Advent, as he did at coffee hour on Sunday. Some people pack it all up and put it away the day after Christmas. Why not exemplify Christmas, (early) it's better than not celebrating at all).

Fr. G. mentioned, I think, that some do not look forward to Christmas because of the stress placed upon them. Right on!

(The fast, the advent, the whipping session). Is this how we bring people to Christ? I don't think so.

Since I've never heard it before, Fr. P, I think is making a big deal out of nothing. So what if people want to decorate early. At least they want to. There are others, who I personally know, that do not look forward to Christmas, and do not want to decorate or participate in what has become a "fiasco." One year, I recall putting the artificial tree up the day after Thanksgiving. The kids were little then, and I was looking forward to Christmas that year.

I hear that many more are not sending greeting cards this year. And, they are not buying all the gifts that leave them broke, at the expense of another unappreciated gift. Expectations have become unrealistic. Their god is commercialism. We are in a recession, people are scared and hurting. Give them the gift of hope, love and joy.

John loves Christmas but like others, gets depressed at Christmastime every year, this is when many of our family members died, and his father as well. There is no joy in struggling. It is hard enough to face the cold, inclement winter, the pile of heating and medical bills, and all the memories. Why do we want to add to the stress of it?

At least some people out there still want to make merry. I am not looking forward to dragging the tree out again, alone, to decorate it in a small house where there is no room, only to single-handily put it all away, not the day after, but when I'm truly sick of it. I will do it for the sake of my grandson, but not with the joy that I used to know.

Christmas past, meant making cookies, visiting with family, putting the tree up on my father's birthday, December 18th., preparing the nativity scene, and attending the church service, with friends and family.

And of course, driving around looking at all the wonderful Pre-Christmas displays, in anticipation. Some of my fondest memories are seeing the lights and Christmas scenes downtown and here on our Common, as we take our evening stroll during a light snowfall.