I've heard commercials blaring, "The holidays are over."
On December 26, I saw Christmas trees tossed out as trash.
No more Christmas songs on radio music stations. No more Christmas bumper music on talk radio.
The Nativity scene has been removed from Green Bay's court house, as originally planned.
Quick! Rip the Christmas cards off the shelves! The Valentines are coming!
In the secular realm, the one that is measured by half-price sales, and gift receipts to make returns and exchanges easier, I guess Christmas is over.
I wonder if those Thanksgiving to Christmas Day celebrators stop to think about the TWELVE days of Christmas.
All those gifts, including the golden rings, the swans a-swimming, the drummers drumming, aren't presented on December 25. The celebration continues.
According to the stores, Christmas is past; but the season is far from over.
John Feister writes a nice explanation of the holiday season and how to celebrate it.
He writes:
Our culture tends to skip Advent and start celebrating Christmas after Thanksgiving—if we’re lucky to make it that far! Then it’s all packed up and stored away by New Year’s. This year, consider returning to the ancient practice of seeing the whole Christmas “cycle”—the period that embraces both the Advent and Christmas seasons—as one unit of joyous celebration. Preparation comes first, then comes celebration extending a few weeks after Christmas Day.
The focal point of the Christmas cycle is obvious: God becoming one of us in Jesus, the Incarnation. All three phases of the cycle—Advent, Christmas and Epiphany—hinge on and celebrate that point. These celebrations help us to name the ways our lives are caught up in the “big story” of Christ. And these feasts tie our lives to Christians throughout history. The tradition of the Church, the living gospel, is the real-life experience of Christians like you and like me, and those who have gone before us.
During Advent, which begins in 2007 on December 2, we emphasize the joy that some would compare to the months before a child is born: excitement, wonder, joy, expectation, even exhilaration at the life that is in our midst right now, yet also a hope and longing, and a carefulness to get things into order.
During the Christmas season we celebrate the wonder of the Incarnation. How wondrously we are made that the Word of God would become one of us! God shows us how to live fully: by pouring out our lives for others. That is what the days of Christmas are all about.
Epiphany and the Feast of the Baptism of the Lord celebrate Christ becoming manifest—that is, present—to all peoples. On Epiphany we focus on the three Wise Men symbolizing the many races for whom Christ was born. The baptism of Jesus marks the beginning of his public ministry. God’s “Christmas gift” of the Incarnation is a gift for everyone!
While it's too late to observe Advent if you missed it this year, it's not too late to continue to celebrate Christmas and then the Epiphany and the Feast of the Baptism of the Lord.
Store shelves may still have a few remnants of Christmas left, at deep discount prices, but Valentine's Day merchandise is ready and waiting to be brought out if it's not already on display.
Cupid and the Three Kings shouldn't overlap.
Don't rush to pack away the season. Celebrate!
Remember, it's still Christmas!
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