The early church father Tertullian did not approve of Christmas decorations. “Let those who have no light in themselves light candles!… You are the light of the world, you are the tree ever green….”
Christmas traditions are many and various. Here at HPC we always start with the ‘Whoops-a-daisy Angel’ – Church Row Nursery’s particular take on the traditional story, similar to ‘You’ve got it wrong again, Gabriel’ a popular nativity play, and ‘Follow the Star’ which the Hampstead Players performed some years ago. They all explore the fallibility of angels who make a very human mess of passing on a very important message. And it all, always, comes right in the end.
Christmas is pretty much like that, isn’t it? We fuss and plan and flap and worry and forget things – but so long as we hear that most important message it all comes right in the end.
Not that I’m advocating a lack of planning. If you want a complicated Christmas start now! The tree is ordered, the crib is ready to be assembled, the decorations will be dusted off in good time, but there’s so much more to December than Christmas which is actually, when you think about it, tucked away in the final week. And when the church invented Advent ‘the season of preparation’ I don’t think it had present-buying and shopping in mind! Advent has the best music – the Advent carol service contains some really beautiful anthems, the London Oratory School Schola are performing an Advent Carol Concert on 10th [details on page 24] and on Wednesday evenings we will have a series of Advent meditations to turn our minds away from shops and help us focus on the manger.
It’s slightly disconcerting to have our Service of Nine Lessons and Carols a whole week before Christmas [on 18th] but the dates dictate that we have to this year. Which means the tree and the decorations will go up in church on 17th. We’ll also be giving the church a good clean that day so there’s something for everyone to do.
The following week there’s a Children’s activity day on Tuesday 20th – you can read more about it on page 6 and there’ll be more information on the pewsheets during the month, and there’s Christmas Crackers on Wednesday 21st at 1pm – a seasonal literary hour which is completely free, though they do invite a retiring collection for the Church Fabric Fund.
Then, finally, we get to Christmas Eve and Christmas Day
“If Christmas Day on a Sunday fall
A troublesome winter we shall have all”
An old saying just to cheer you up!
and then if you hate the whole thing you can relax because it’s over! The shops take down their tinsel, the sales begin, the spring fashions and Easter eggs will appear and the whole cycle gets going again. And, see page 10, we start planning for Lent……
But we stay with the Christmas story. While the rest of the world has that ‘over and done with and was it worth the trouble’ feeling the church takes time to absorb the gift, to ponder the events, to think it all through until the joy of Epiphany bursts on us. This year, as last, there’ll be a children’s party in the crypt on the 6th January followed by a ‘youthful’ epiphany service, not unsuitable for adults, but with a children’s procession and a simplified Eucharist.
The very last word on Christmas will be said [and sung] on Saturday 7th January in an entertainment devised by the Vicar and performed in the church. Details about tickets will be available soon.
But that’ll all be in the January magazine and let’s not hasten the old year away until it’s ready to go. I unashamedly love December – carols and glitter and lights, church services and all those silly programmes on TV, whether it’s a riotous time with the family or home with the cat [a pagan, of course, but she doesn’t mind climbing the Christmas tree and nibbling on the odd bit of lametta]. I should have lived in the days when the decorations stayed up till Candlemas! But that really IS looking too far ahead!
December
Judy East