Before I begin blogging in earnest for the CEB blog tour (see my last post), I wanted to share a few thoughts about Advent and Christmas, and how they are interpreted in our modern consumer-driven culture.  A few things you should know, though:

• First, I have worked in retail for the past twenty years, and currently work part-time at a large department store in Nashville.  (Those who know me personally know which one it is, but I shan't name it here...)
• Second, I also work at a Methodist church as Music Director, and as part of my duties, I select hymns for worship, largely based on the Methodist liturgical calendar.
• Third, I was raised Lutheran, so I tend to gravitate towards a pretty traditional view of the liturgical calendar.  In other words, to me, Advent is Advent, and Christmas is Christmas, and "ne'er the twain shall meet."
• Fourth, due to the necessities of scheduling, I always schedule the Christmas cantata for my church choir on the Sunday before Christmas.  (This ends up conflicting with my third point above.)

How often I've heard someone say something like, "They play the Christmas music in the department stores earlier each year!"  Now, I'm not sure if this is actually true, but since I work in a department store, I can assure you that our store started the Christmas music some time early in November.  Growing up, my parents always had a strict rule that Christmas music was not to be played until the day AFTER Thanksgiving.  Right off the bat, if you read my bullet points above, you'll see that this rule has absolutely nothing to do with my own traditional understanding of the Advent season as it relates to the liturgical celebration of Christmas.  So, even though I (and many others) constantly decry the early commercial use of Christmas songs and carols, there is a considerable amount of variation in how most Christians celebrate Christmas, and when they celebrate it.

Every year at the church where I direct music, someone tells the pastor, "We should be singing more Christmas carols in December!"  This certainly blurs the difference between Advent and Christmas, and I have no doubt that it is the influence of the commercial version of Christmas that has caused many Christians to look at Advent as a sort of extension of the Christmas season.  This is why I often wonder if our "celebration" of Christmas has any connection whatsoever with the traditional liturgical observance of the Nativity.  All the trappings of the Christmas season, from the decorations in our homes to the music on the PA at the stores, have almost nothing to do with the religious observance of the "feast of Christmas."

I have to ask myself, does it really matter?  Do we really need to "put the Christ back in Christmas," or remind people that "Jesus is the reason for the season"?  (I can't help but think those slogans have a peculiarly commercial sort of ring to them.)  Appealing to Scripture doesn't really help too much, because the Bible doesn't seem to encourage any ritual observance of Jesus' birth.  I mean, the Nativity only made it into two of the four Gospels, and with a different narrative in each one.  Even our conflation of the two narratives into one "Christmas story" is a tradition that we've developed over the years.  You know, Linus's big speech in A Charlie Brown Christmas? "And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night..." (KJV)  It's so engrained in our consciousness, that the CEB's more modern rendering sounds strange to our ears: "Nearby shepherds were living in the fields, guarding their sheep at night." (CEB)  Sure, it means the same thing, but it doesn't sound like Christmas!

My whole point here, as far as I can figure out, is this: everyone has an idea of how they think Christmas should be celebrated.  Heck, even my Jewish boss at a place where I worked in Chicago many years ago demanded a Santa Claus for the big holiday sale!  Our cultural preconceptions and the actual content of our religious faith don't always have a lot to do with each other.  My desperately trying to maintaing the liturgical distinction between Advent and Christmas isn't really any more sensible, in a way, than the lady who snapped at me a few years back when I wished her a happy holiday, "You mean MERRY CHRISTMAS!"  (Well, actually, I still think that lady was really mean, and didn't represent either the commercial or the religious "spirit of Christmas" very well...)  It's pretty hard to remove our cultural glasses, and look at things with a fresh vision.  Do yourself a favor this Christmas season (or Advent, or whatever), and try reading the Advent and Christmas passages from a translation that is unfamiliar to you.  Come to think of it, you could try reading the Common English Bible.  Hint, hint...