No Tree Until It\’s Christmas

Leticia Adams - Advent2

\"Leticia

I’m not really one of those people who worries about certain things. My family and I hold hands with one another during the Our Father at Mass. We usually end up at the Life Teen Mass, even though we would much rather go to another one, and we all have nicknames for our Guardian Angel. Mine is Big Poppa, because I like irritating my angel.

However, the one thing that I am very big about is observing Advent, and not putting up a Christmas tree until it’s Christmas. I make it a point that in this house there will be no Christmas until we have all taken the time to prepare for it.

It drives my family crazy. My husband and I go round and round over it every single year, because he wants to start singing Christmas carols and decorating the house when all the other neighbor husbands do.

I even make him wait until Christmas to turn on the lights outside.

My reason behind it is because I think that it takes time and reflection to really appreciate what Christmas really is; to think about God, Who created the universe, becoming man. A priest once told me that it would be like us becoming an ant to save the ants from dying by dying for them.

I think that the Evil One knows that if we really took time out to think about this fact, we wouldn’t give a crap about presents, parties, Christmas dresses or any of the other hoopla that goes along with the “busy Holiday season.” And so does the Church, that is why She gives us seasons.

Jesus is coming. God became man with flesh and bones. He cried. He laughed. He ate. He slept. He bled. He died. All of the things that we do, He did, except sin. Christmas Day is more than just a day to watch football and open gifts. I’m sure Jesus loves us doing those things, which is why His Church gave us these weeks before that day to pray and reflect on the real meaning of the day, and why we also have weeks to celebrate after Christmas Day.

I like a quiet Advent, spent by the fire reading books written by Saints. It is how I learn about who Jesus is. It is how I teach my children about who He is. It is how we prepare our hearts to be His manger on Christmas Day.  Not to mention that by the time Christmas Day comes, I am so sick of Christmas carols, because they are over played for two months, and the commercials that exploit them to sell products. It’s a horrible mockery of what God did for us, in my opinion.

The Church is so wise to give us Advent. It’s not Christmas yet, I hope we all remember that. As much as I love Christmas, I personally need this time to think about the true meaning of Christmas so I don’t get swept away in the craziness that surrounds this Holiday starting with Black Friday tramplings and ending with kids crying because Santa didn’t give them what they want.

I pray that everyone has a blessed Advent.

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7 thoughts on “No Tree Until It\’s Christmas”

  1. I personally need this time to think about the true meaning of Christmas
    so I don’t get swept away in the craziness that surrounds this Holiday
    starting with Black Friday tramplings and ending with kids crying
    because Santa didn’t give them what they want.

    AMEN.

  2. I think it’s great to wait for your tree . . . but I do encourage you to put out lights ahead of the Nativity of Our Lord. Let me tell you why. As a career woman, trudging home from work every day in the cold darkness, the cheer from the Christmas lights always gladdens my heart. I am sincerely grateful to all my neighbors who put out lights before Christmas, indeed, well before December 21, when the world is at its darkest. And, putting out brightly colored lights encourages others in the neighborhood to begin thinking about Christmas and what it means to them.

    It is so dark, so gloomy at this time of year. Think of the cold wayfarer, the weary driver, and put out your Christmas lights well before Christmas. God bless you all.

  3. I love this! My family and I never put up our tree on Christmas eve. It’s always been a tradition for us. My dad doesn’t even do Christmas shopping until Christmas eve. Then we go out at the crack of dawn to Walmart when Mom is asleep. ha! This year he did online shopping for the first time ever though because he wanted to get my mom some
    special Roman
    Catholic books
    and I’m pretty sure Walmart doesn’t sell those.

    We don’t really do things in observance of Advent. We just don’t want to participate in the overly commercialized view of Christmas. We celebrate it from a religious point and have a bit of fun with gifts without getting too wrapped up in all of the commercialized hype.

  4. I love celebrating the Lord this time of year! Ok forget the football, and all the hoopla. You could compromise — just a little — and let him turn on some lights the week before. Jesus is the light of the world!
    God bless and have a wonderful Christmas.

  5. All the Santa stuff should end after St. Nicholas’s feast day. The former may be a corruption of the saint, but close enough. Kids would love getting gifts so early! Afterwards, we can observe Advent and Christmas Day properly–all focus on Christ’s birth.

  6. Excellent article, Leticia. You’re kids are so lucky they have a mother who sits down and reads to them about the lives of the saints. Those stories are just amazing, much better than those lame stories from this culture.
    But hey, you’ve got to understand your husband’s interest in football. There is something in us men that is hardwired for stories of hunters and warriors and comebacks. Manning and Brady and Peterson all came back from devastating injuries….
    I read your conversion story and first became interested in Catholic Stand. I thought, “Wow, that’s how you write a conversion story!”
    May your family have a Blessed Advent.

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