My friend's aunt has two Christmas teddy bears she sets out every year. A girl bear and a boy bear. The girl she named "Christmas Eve." The boy, then, had to be "Christmas Adam." Everyone knows Dec. 24 is Christmas Eve, but in my friend's house, Dec. 23 is Christmas Adam.
So today, on Christmas Adam, let's talk about Christmas Eve--services, that is! Dec. 24 is a work day for most of our spouses. To what extent does that affect your family's celebration? Is dinner squeezed in between 5:00 and 7:00 services, or do you have lots of family time before an 11:00 candlelight service?
Will you attend all of them, or just one? Or maybe none at all! Tell us by responding to the poll in the sidebar, and/or give the details by commenting.
Merry Christmas!
This year we will have 3 Christmas Eve services. One reason is that Christmas Eve is a prime time when new people visit the church for the first time. So our church goes all out trying to involve the community.
ReplyDeleteOur family time will be limited to after mid-night. Now that the kids are grown, we can sleep in, a bit, on Christmas Day. But my spouse takes off the week between Christmas and New Years, and we all work around that. Where we once traveled to see grandparents, we now travel to see grandkids. Very hectic, but I wouldn't trade it. Kathy
I'm actually fortunate enough to be off work tomorrow as well. Before I knew that my office would be closed for the day, my husband and I discussed what our Christmas Eve options were. I had planned to attend the 11 PM service only. The members of my church know that I have a job and am frequently not able to attend early evening events.
ReplyDeleteMy husband has 4 services (at 2 churches) on Christmas Eve and we have a 2 year old. We'll attend one service at each church and still try to get the 2 year old down for bed close to on time.
ReplyDeleteWe have 5 services on Christmas Eve. I will attend one. Fortunately, my spouse no longer has to be at all 5 services, just 4 of them. We'll get to see her for about 30 minutes at supper between services. However, she won't be home until well after midnight. We don't have a tradition because we don't see each other. Christmas Eve is left to me and the kids alone. I put out the presents and sit up until she gets home. She is usually so tired, we just go straight to bed because the kids will be up early. I used to be bitter about this, but have learned to accept it. I just find it interesting that we promote spending time with family and family traditions on Christmas Eve, but destroy any opportunity for the pastor to spend time with their family on Christmas Eve. I know it comes with the job, but still.... I remember beautiful moments on Christmas Eve as a child (and I am a preacher's kid) when we would worship together and then have dinner followed by lighting of the Advent candles at home. We would then exchange gifts among the family and watch a Christmas movie together. I wish we could share the same tradition with our children, but the schedule at this church just doesn't allow it.
ReplyDeleteWe have 2 churches, with one service at each (The church is 30 minutes from our home so we had to leave pretty early.) The services were wonderful and we were back home by 8:45. So fortunately we had some great family time roasting marshmallows in the fireplace. This is only my husband's second year in ministry, so who knows what next years Christmas will look like.
ReplyDeleteMy husband and I spent Christmas apart this year. He had to be at the church - I had to be with my Grandfather who isn't doing well. It was probably our last Christmas together. It was hard being over 500 miles apart on Christmas.
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