The Season is Advent not Christmas!

[Millard Weisen]

The American Family Association sent out a mailer to me deriding vendors that said "Happy Holidays" and saying that they were denying "the reason for the season" (their words).

I find this utterly laughable that this "Christian" organization doesn't even know that this isn't the Christmas season yet and to force retailers to say "Merry Christmas" makes as much sense as forcing them to say "Happy Easter." The season now is ADVENT. It is not Christmas, nor will it be until Christmas Eve when we have finished the penitent season of Advent. So, if you want to be correct when responding to those who say "Happy Holidays" say "Have a penitent Advent" or don't say anything at all!

[Barb Bouldrey]

More and more my mind is believing that Christ no longer has anyting to do with "The Christmas Season."

The Christmas Season, that begins the day after Thanksgiving has absolutely nothing to do with the birth of Christ. Whenever Christmas was first celebrated to commemorate Christ's birth, it was a religious holiday. Now the secular world has robbed us of that and pushed the birth of Christ into the background.

More and more I am leaning to thinking of this time year of ADVENT instead of Christmas.

If I think of preparing for Advent and celebrating Advent, that is focusing on Christ.

I am tempted to begin saying,"Have a blessed Advent," instead of Merry Christmas.

Jesus is the reason it all started, but He is not the reason 95%(just a guess on percentage) of the world is in the middle of Christmas season.

Barb

[Millard Weisen]

Barb,

I agree and I wonder how much we are paying attention the Scriptures when we hear John the Baptist last Sunday saying "Prepare the way of the Lord and make his paths straight" while in the wilderness. We need to recapture Advent and refuse to jump ahead to Christmas....repentance comes before the joy.

[Thomas Cook]

Barb,

I agree and I wonder how much we are paying attention the Scriptures when we hear John the Baptist last Sunday saying "Prepare the way of the Lord and make his paths straight" while in the wilderness. We need to recapture Advent and refuse to jump ahead to Christmas....repentance comes before the joy.
Millard,
Who determines that thiis is not Christmas.I fully understand the Advent Season etc.However in our Culture "Christmas Season" is said to start after Thanksgiving.
Maybe for the majority of Christinas it is Christmas Season now.it is to me.Are you thinking of some thing somwher that states that certain days are Advent then Christmas starts on Christmas eve?Why is it not ok?
Maybe we can start a new awareness of the" Reason for the Season" rather than critcizing any who start too early.
By the way I'm completely sincere in my question.I really have been somewhat confused myself and wondered where your info originated.and...............Merryt Christmas!
Tom

[Wilson L. Deaton]

I don't typically say, "Happy Holidays," but on the other hand I don't have a major problem with it (except from those whom I know to be specifically saying it for the purpose of ignoring Christmas.) In my mind, I have always talked about the "holiday season" as being this entire time of year beginning, not after, but with Thanksgiving and lasting through New Years. It is a season in which I observe several "special" days: Thanksgiving, Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, New Years' Eve, and New Year's Day. Thus, "holidays, for me is an umbrella term for all these days.

Wilson

[Millard Weisen]

Who determines that thiis is not Christmas.

Tom,

The Christian calendar as we inherit it says that this is not Christmas. The season now is Advent when we don't read Christmas texts, but rather we hear readings about penitence and the second coming of Christ. Advent takes us to Christmas Eve and Christmas and then the "Twelve Days of Christmas" begin until we reach Epiphany. (Yes, that is where the "12 Days of Xmas" song comes from!)

However in our Culture "Christmas Season" is said to start after Thanksgiving.
Maybe for the majority of Christinas it is Christmas Season now.

Well, they are wrong and unfortunately misinformed. It is no more Christmas right now than it is Easter. Why is this a big deal you wonder? Because we have been pushed by a consumer culture to begin Christmas before its time...and what has been skipped over is Advent...a time to repent. How appropriate, huh? We skip a valued Christian season of repentance so that retailers can make a bigger bottom line. To me, Christians should rebel against this.

Are you thinking of some thing somwher that states that certain days are Advent then Christmas starts on Christmas eve?


Yes, the history of the season is there and complete. If anything, it is the clergy's fault for not educating their congregations. Otherwise, we go from Thanksgiving to Christmas and there is no time to spiritually prepare. That is, to me, as grevious as going from Palm Sunday to Easter and skipping Good Friday!


and...............Merryt Christmas!

Not yet! We have preparations to do!

[Thomas Cook]

Thank you.I appreciate your explanations.They are well written and clearly stated.You did enlighten me in a couple areas.
I am not asking in a spirit of disagreement but where do you find the connection of repentance linked with Advent.Are you thinking of the Preachiing of John the Baptist of preparing the way,repenting etc?Do you fell repenting refers to every failure or repentance for willful sin which may(or may not) have already been dealt with?
Is there another source for the repenting process during advent other than John the Baptists preaching.Has this been the practice of the CHristian Church throughout Church history?I would confess to having missed that tradition somewhere along the way.
I wholeheartedly concur with the point of over commercialization and materialism of Advent/Christmas Season.In fact,I have often thought how nice it would be to take a year when we would not give something material rather give something of ourselves to the special people of our lives.A symbolic return to the Manger and the spirit of the first Christmas.
Thank you agin for your reply and God bless and ....whenever it does arrive for you....I wish you a Blessed Christmas.
Tom

[Barbara Moulton]

So, if you want to be correct when responding to those who say "Happy Holidays" say "Have a penitent Advent" or don't say anything at all!

But saying Merry Christmas is a wish for the day that is coming...that's why I say it. And I follow it up with a God bless. And that connects with the people I meet and minister to far more than urging them to penitence. In fact, if I urged the store clerk who wished me Happy Holidays to have a penitent Advent, I think I would lose any chance I might have had to connect with her.

I wasn't raised in a luturgical tradition and so the idea of these weeks before Christmas being a time of penitence is alien to me. Same with Lent for that matter.

I simply don't spend vast periods of time in soul searching penitence. I claim each day the promise of joy that the angels sang about so long ago and that Jesus said I would have in abundance and the joy that was the reason that Christ endured the cross. I am not saying that I never feel the need for pentience...when God convicts me of a wrong attitude or action for example.

But reserving certain weeks of the year for this just doesn't correspond with my spiritual journey. (Although I am thankful that it does for many who have a different spiritual makeup)

Joy manifests itself in my life in many ways. Many of them related to worship and my ministry of course but also many reflected in my relationship with family and friends. (Which is one reason why I love this season.)

The Lord has done great things for me and I am full of joy.

[Thomas Cook]

But saying Merry Christmas is a wish for the day that is coming...that's why I say it. And I follow it up with a God bless. And that connects with the people I meet and minister to far more than urging them to penitence. In fact, if I urged the store clerk who wished me Happy Holidays to have a penitent Advent, I think I would lose any chance I might have had to connect with her.

I wasn't raised in a luturgical tradition and so the idea of these weeks before Christmas being a time of penitence is alien to me. Same with Lent for that matter.

I simply don't spend vast periods of time in soul searching penitence. I claim each day the promise of joy that the angels sang about so long ago and that Jesus said I would have in abundance and the joy that was the reason that Christ endured the cross. I am not saying that I never feel the need for pentience...when God convicts me of a wrong attitude or action for example.

But reserving certain weeks of the year for this just doesn't correspond with my spiritual journey. (Although I am thankful that it does for many who have a different spiritual makeup)

Joy manifests itself in my life in many ways. Many of them related to worship and my ministry of course but also many reflected in my relationship with family and friends. (Which is one reason why I love this season.)

The Lord has done great things for me and I am full of joy.
Barbara,
You expressed that very,very well.I think that is where I'm coming from as well.Merry Christmas.
Have you all had a lot of snow yet?
Tom

[Barbara Moulton]

I've been doing some reading about the history of Advent.

Bad news folks. As I read it, if we want to return to the traditions and practices associated with the observance of Advent in its earliest days, we should be fasting. :-)

[Belinda Y. Edwards]

I've been doing some reading about the history of Advent.

Bad news folks. As I read it, if we want to return to the traditions and practices associated with the observance of Advent in its earliest days, we should be fasting. :-)

*laughs*
*smiles*

Then, nods in agreement...

The more i practice Advent, the more i am mindful of the NEED to fast during this season. More than once the idea has come to me this year - but for various reasons i have resisted. i am not surprised with what you have shared, rather it has been a confirmation that this is indeed what i need to plan within my preparation.

i love the educational process. The more i learn the more i realize how fortunate i am that i haven't literally killed someone in my ignorance by self medicating. i come from parents whose parents were of the great depression. Self medicating is a way of life because medical treatment is so expensive. i see us heading back into that - perhaps, we are already there. But, i don't regret my journey.

Thus, yes - i enjoy and practice Advent, now. But, i don't regret my *Christmas* years - nor do i get angry when others aren't on the same path.

i think the more accepting of my own journey - and the more i accept others' right to their place in their own journey - the more at peace i will be deep inside.

Isn't *peace* part of the Advent journey?

How can i proclaim Advent if i am not practicing it?