So many of my favorite things about Christmas come from church tradition and not strictly speaking from the Bible. I think that should tell us something about our wider faith. Your Christian faith didn’t stop with the canonization of the Bible, it continued to evolve over centuries of thought, debate and tradition and it should continue to evolve in those same ways as the world around us changes.
The Advent Season
If you don’t belong to a mainline or liturgical denomination, it may surprise you that Christmas doesn’t start on Halloween (or before if you’re a Costco shopper). Christmas is a 12-day season that starts on – you guessed it – Christmas Day. Leading up to Christmas is a season we call Advent which begins four Sundays before Christmas. It’s a time of anticipation and reflection on the incarnation of Christ.
Can you even imagine that the God above all, the creator of the universe, the wholly other ground of all being loves us so much that They became one of us? Frankly, I’m amazed we only take four weeks to contemplate this mystery.
And guess what? It’s not in the Bible but we all do it. It started in the early centuries of the Church and allowed Christians to do some inner spiritual housekeeping as we celebrate light coming into the world. And you know what else isn’t in the Bible? Advent candles, wreaths and chocolate calendars, even though those practices help tell important faith stories.
Most of us spend Advent shopping, eating and these days, worrying about inflation. But it is intended to be a time of prayer, reflection and repentance (a word that just means “turning away”). Like Lent, Advent reminds us to think about our unique roles in the Kingdom of God. It should remind of us of love and hope and force a break into our busy and distracted lives in December.
Nativity Scenes
Since childhood I’ve loved nativity scenes. That’s the point, really, to give kids a Christmas playset and to teach kids how to glue broken ceramic decorations back together. Granted, there are nativity stories in the Bible. But it may surprise you that the nativity scenes – or crèches or manger scenes – weren’t popular until the 13th century when St. Francis of Assisi wanted to make the nativity story more accessible. How about that? We can use extra-biblical means to strengthen our faith. I’m particularly moved by St. Francis’ intention to inspire the study of Christ’s birth to help cultivate a spirit of compassion and humility. Also, the first one featured live animals and I think the tiny little ceramic ones are much more practical in our living rooms, so even this tradition has improved over time.
If you have a crèche in your home, go to it each night and pick up one character – any of the Holy family, a shepherd, a Magi or even a sheep or donkey – and really try to put yourself in the story through their eyes. There is something powerful about these tangible pieces of wood, clay, fabric and I’m hoping not lead-based paint that goes beyond what you can experience through words. Allow yourself freedom to explore the narrative in your heart going beyond the Biblical text. Matthew and Luke were forced to come up with many of their details as well, so why shouldn’t you feel free to prayerfully elaborate?
When you’re running around doing last-minute shopping, coming home to your nativity scene is a great reminder of God’s gift to us.
Gifts of the Magi
Which brings us to gifting traditions and the Magi. Gift giving is usually considered to be tied to the gifts the wise men brought to the baby Jesus – Gold, Frankincense and Myrhh. In later times, Christians celebrated the Feast of St. Nicholas who was known for his generosity to kids and poor people. It’s a long story I won’t cover here, but the Dutch brought their contraction of St. Nicholas – Sinterklaas – with them to America who then became Santa Claus, and eventually become a symbol of commercial decadence and Coca Cola.
Instead of Jolly Saint Nick, I’d prefer to discuss a couple of interesting things I only learned fairly recently myself about the gifts and the names of the Magi.
The Magi gave the baby Jesus gold as a symbol of royalty, value and divine authority. It was a gift of the highest respect for Jesus. They gave Jesus Frankincense which was a fragrant resin used in religious rituals and ceremonies. It was a gift that would tip off the reader to Jesus’ divine nature and remind people of prayer. Myrrh was a particularly unusual gift for a baby because it was used in embalming and to cover up the smell of dead bodies. It would remind the reader of death, sacrifice and also healing and anointing. If you are a literalist, skip the end of this paragraph. I don’t think there is any reason to insist that the Magi were real. There is so much symbolism tied up in Matthew’s storytelling that the gifts and they Magi themselves are probably no more specifically real than the names we call them. But if you do believe the Magi are real, then you are also forced to believe that pagan pre-Christian astrology is a tool of God. Hurray for unbiblical faith traditions.
The fact that Christmas traditions spring up and evolve can show us how our own faith and practices can and should adapt, grow and take on new meanings over time.
Wait, back up there, the Magi have names? Yes, but first, there is nothing in the Bible that says there were three of them either. But sometime in the third century, since three gifts were named, we thought it would be great if the kings came from the three known continents of the world. So we have a Persian king we call Melchior. He’s usually the old guy with the white beard in your nativity set. His name is associated with light. Then we get a king from the East, or maybe India, named Caspar or Gaspar. His name probably was associated with treasure and is usually depicted as a younger South Asian in your set. Finally, we get Balthazar the African king. It is terrific to me that most home nativity scenes feature a black man. It has demonstrated for centuries that God’s kingdom has no racial or geographic boundaries.
It is important to note that these traditions have developed over time and depending on your source, will have different origins and spellings. But I just think it’s super fun nonetheless.
Christmas Carols and Songs
Again, Christmas starts on Christmas Day, so technically you shouldn’t be singning Christmas carols during Advent. But we all do. I’m particular fond of Weezer’s Christmas EP which is surprisingly reverential but we also play both the Verve and Blue Note Christmas compilations and some She and Him right around Thanksgiving. Very unbiblical and nonliturgical of us.
Medieval carols were songs and dances and eventually Christmas carols took on a more religious flavor in a wonderful combination of piety and culture. One of my favorites is Gaudete and this live version by the Mediaeval Baebes cannot be beat. The reverence and majesty of this carol puts me right into the spirit of the worship of Christ – yet, we didn’t receive it until the 16th century. I love feeling the link to this part of our history, something that is not Biblical yet as Christian as it gets.
Gaudēte, gaudēte!
Chrīstus est nātus
Ex Marīā virgine,
gaudēte!
Rejoice, rejoice!
Christ is born
Of the Virgin Mary
Rejoice!
Christmas Trees
Another 16th century innovation, the Christmas evergreen, has been a symbol of life since before Christendom. Because evergreens retain their foliage through the year, they are a symbol of enduring life and love. And not only are they not Biblical, Egyptians, Romans and Celts used them in their solstice celebrations long before Christians dragged them into their homes. Again, I love the combination of our Christian traditions and the preexisting culture.
We used to put nuts and candles on the tree. Not a very fire-safe move, so now we do other things, because traditions evolve just like faith. Most of us use ornaments, pictures, garlands, stars, snowflakes and angels, but if you look at my friends’ trees really almost anything goes.
Christmas itself is by grace. It could never have survived our own blindness and depredations otherwise. It could never have happened otherwise. Perhaps it is the very wildness and strangeness of the grace that has led us to try to tame it. We have tried to make it habitable. We have roofed it in and furnished it. We have reduced it to an occasion we feel at home with, at best a touching and beautiful occasion, at worst a trite and cloying one. But if the Christmas event in itself is indeed — as a matter of cold, hard fact — all it’s cracked up to be, then even at best our efforts are misleading.
Frederick Buechner, originally published in Whistling in the Dark and later in Beyond Words
What Can We Learn From Evolving Christmas Traditions?
To me, the most important part of these Christmas traditions is that I feel rooted in a vibrant faith that covers over 3,000 years of history. I’m part of a story that keeps being told in unique ways. I love singing Gaudete like I’m a Renaissance man, or calling the wise men by their names like a third-century priest.
But the fact that Christmas traditions spring up and evolve can show us how our own faith and practices can and should adapt, grow and take on new meanings over time. Our faith is a dynamic faith over centuries and that is beautiful. It didn’t end with the Bible. In fact, you shouldn’t worry as much about the Bible as most Christians do, you should instead concentrate more on the presence of Jesus in your life and the Church and our Christmas traditions help reinforce that.
Faith involves cultural integration. Too many lives have been hurt by trying to force our cultural ideas upon others in the name of Christianity. What our Christmas traditions show is that we have been able to integrate many local customs and celebrations into our practice. We can adapt. We can focus on symbolism and meaning, which is what I think the authors of Matthew and Luke had in mind more than an historical retelling of “facts.” The important part of the story is not history but themes of love and hope that extend into our modern lives. Our faith, just like our Christmas traditions, can incorporate a lot of personal and local expressions. We don’t put candles on Christmas trees anymore, we use LED lights. Our faith can continue to grow into modern, meaningful and inclusive new expressions that are all centered on the love God showed the world in the incarnation.
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Thanks Matt! Great inspiration for really anticipating Christmas!
Thanks Joan! You’re the best!