Preparing for Christmas

Christmastime is one of my favorite times of the year. It's the feeling in the air, the sense that something is happening around you, the feelings of hope and anticipation. I never fail to be inspired and moved by the hope and spirit of this season. Advent is the time we have to prepare for Christmas, and as I wrote in one of my previous posts, I have fond memories of preparing for Christmas as children in grammar school. I can remember some of those times like they were yesterday, they have so much meaning for me. Many of those times are coupled to what we did in grammar school, but also what we did with our parents. What we do together with children to prepare for Christmas is something they will remember for their whole lives, whether it is baking cookies or making gingerbread houses, going to Christmas exhibitions and markets, going to church and looking at the nativity creche, or going to see The Nutcracker ballet (for the umpteenth time--I never tire of it, although it is always sold-out now here in Oslo long before I get around to buying tickets). My parents took us into Manhattan a few times to walk around and look at the department store windows (Macy's, Lord & Taylor, Bloomingdale) that always had beautiful Christmas decorations and scenes. Afterward, my father would buy roasted chestnuts from a street vendor; I remember to this day how much he liked them (and how much we didn't). He worked in Manhattan for many years; I remember he liked to go to the food section at Macy's at Herald Square before Christmas, where he bought Italian hard candy with different fruit fillings for us and plum pudding for my mother. He would also purchase a panettone, a sweet bread loaf with raisins and candied fruit that we ate every year for breakfast on Christmas Day. And he and my mother would also make struffoli, an Italian (Neapolitan) dessert made of deep fried (in peanut oil) marble-sized balls of dough that were then covered in honey and candy sprinkles. 

It is those memories of my family Christmases that I carry with me always and that I celebrate each year in combination with the Norwegian traditions of my husband's family that have now become our traditions. But beyond the cultural traditions, it is the religious and spiritual traditions of Advent that I remember well--having an Advent wreath with four candles, and lighting one for each of the four Sundays during Advent. When I was in my mid-twenties, my local church in New Jersey would have nights when we would distribute food we had made to the poor and homeless; it also sponsored evenings where we would get together at different people's homes to discuss the scriptures (a type of Bible study, I guess). We would also pick a charity and donate as a group to that charity. Our local church in Tarrytown where I grew up also had a gift tree with tags hanging on it; we would pick a tag and it would describe what gift was wished for by a young girl or boy, without naming their names. Sometimes they wanted toys, other times clothing. We would also collect canned foods and give them to the church that distributed them to struggling families who did not have enough food. My heart was always cheered by the sight of the huge piles of canned goods and food that were collected. We were raised to pay attention to those less fortunate than we were; we were raised to care about our fellow man, and to give because we had enough to give. The concept of giving to the less fortunate was not something we only did at Christmas, but for some reason, what we did during the Christmas season made a huge impression on me, especially as a child.

The priest at church today talked about finding time for prayer during Advent. He said something that struck me as so true--that God makes contact with us (initiates it) in many ways, giving us countless opportunities to get in touch, so that our prayers are not so much requests for something we want from God as responses to God's attempts to contact us. That makes prayer a two-way street and I like that idea. It makes the connection near and personal, and it is a reminder to pay attention to what happens around us, because what happens around us and in our daily lives are the possibilities we have to listen to the voice of God and to prepare for Christ's coming.