First Week of Advent 2025

 Though this sounds very cliché, I feel like Christmas was just yesterday, or at least the clean-up. As a child it seemed like Christmas took forever to arrive. As an adult the year passes way too quickly. But, it’s here. I’ve written before about how much I love this season of the year, but it is a bittersweet type of love. A lot of work goes in to the magic.

Yesterday I put on Christmas music and began to unpack decorations. I have way too many, but it allows for choices. I enjoy doing some things differently each year, but many things remain the same. One of the same traditions are my Santas. I have a few. Most of my Santas were gifts, so as I unpack I remember the giver. I probably should say “indulger”, because I do have quite a few Santas. I had to finally say “no more”, but that doesn’t always work. A big contributor to the collection was my brother. He, along with my husband, have curated quite a group of handsome Santa Clauses.

Santa has figured strong in my Christmas, long before I had visual reminders. Both my parents brought that magic into our lives. My dad, reportedly a late comer to the whole Santa thing, would sign little gifts “Love Santa” that he’d found for us and put in our stockings. I still have a couple of those gift tags, loving how he continued to do this up to his death.  My mom was the biggest Santa lover. We never had a fireplace or a chimney (unless you count the far from realistic cardboard one she found and used for many years), but she still convinced us Santa would find a way in. Long after we knew our parents were Santa, we still loved helping to weave that bit of magic into each Christmas.

Strange for a strong, Christian home to carry on such a tradition. One might think this would conflict with the true meaning of Christmas. That conflicted my dad in the early years of their marriage. How can you promote Santa and not diminish the Christ child in the manger? I am living proof you can.  Santa was a huge part of our Christmas season, but he never took prime place. The birth of Jesus always had center stage. No one tried to intertwine the stories (“Santa knows that we’re all God’s children, and that makes everything right”, or pictures of Santa kneeling at the crèche were not part of our traditions). We grew up knowing that Jesus was a real as we were. His was not a fantasy story. Though as children we believed there was a Santa, Santa never stepped into Jesus’ place in our Christmas. He just added a bit more magic to the season.

My parents did a great job of balancing all of this. And therein lies the bittersweet. My Dad’s been gone 20 years, my mom 30, as well as my husband’s parents. Most of my traditions tie into them, so every step I take during the season reminds me that they are no longer with us. We are also missing my two sisters. We, like a lot of families, find the season sometimes difficult to manage because we miss those who are gone. Grandparents, Step-Parents, Siblings, Aunts, Uncles, Cousins, Friends, Spouse, these losses leave huge holes that are especially difficult to fill over holidays.  For me the bittersweet comes knowing so much of Christmas is tied to those who have gone. Every ornament, food choice, piece of music holds a reminder of Christmases past.  Sweet, sweet memories that infuse everything I do during the season, and a little sour because we no longer have them here to share.

An important part of my tradition is setting up my manger scene. For many years my nephew set up the scene for me, and we would talk through the birth of Jesus. My manger scene is from Bethlehem, which makes it quite special, coming all that distance to me by way of my husband’s parents. And the characters continued to “travel” as my nephew “rode” the camels throughout our house to find a place for the wise men. They weren't at the manger, so we had to "ride" them around to find their place where they would wait to arrive on the scene. And somehow they have survived.

There is great comfort and blessing in setting up that scene. God came and met us here in our space through Jesus, Emmanuel, God with us. That first Christmas was anything but glitter, and yet there were angels and shepherds, music and rejoicing. “Unto you is born this day a Savior Who is Christ the Lord.”  What happened that night so long ago, bringing God into our existence as a man (fully human and yet still fully God) is nothing short of magical. Not magic, like Santa, but magical, mysterious, amazing, beyond comprehension. And He came for me and my family. He came for you. He’s here walking through our grief and our joys. God is with us! 

He is with us as we prepare for Christmas 2025. Sure, we can push Him into a corner and focus only on the secular glitz of Christmas. I have a lot of that glitz around my home.  But we can also purposely focus on the source of all this celebration, Jesus the Christ, the originator of Christ-mass. In Latin the word translated “mass” means “sent”. We worship and then are sent out to share our faith. Christmas then is sending out the message of Christ. Our job as Christians is to keep Christ in Christmas, and I believe we do this by sharing our lives with others, being the flesh and blood arms and voices that bring the Good News to those who do not know. God is with us, and we are His ambassadors, the ones sent out.

That doesn’t mean we have to dump Santa. It just means that, like my parents, we put Christ at the center and celebrate His birth on this special day.

So here we are; it’s December again. As we celebrate this first week of Advent, let’s remember what we are really celebrating, making sure Christ is front and center of all we do and share. If nothing else, when we sense the bittersweet of the holidays, remembering that God is with us, right here in the midst of our grief and challenges. That is amazing! This is Christmas.