Sunday, December 16, 2012

A Christmas Tradition

A major holiday is celebrated in many different ways among cultures and within cultures. My church has one lovely Christmas tradition. About 10 days before Christmas there is a musical Saturday night.

The church is decorated only with fresh green trees.

The first 30 minutes of the evening involve singing Christmas carols. The facilitator makes it so much fun. He asks for choices by persons "who used to be red heads" or "who are under 10" or "who are sitting in the cheap seats." Perhaps those readers in other countries may not understand "cheap seats." That means those sitting in the very back. In a paid theater those tickets would be the least expensive, but I'm certain with that explanation everyone understands and knows how this fits with theater in their countries. Obviously, we don't charge admission for this.

The next 30 minutes is a concert by the various choirs of the church. And always the music is magnificent.

The final 30 minutes -- which frankly takes longer than 30 minutes -- is food.
There were tables covered with Christmas goodies.

One is free to put together whatever combination desired -- caroling and food, concert and food, or all three!

I volunteered for clean-up committee and became queen of the dishwasher.

When leaving I found this:

Someone had made what I'm calling snow creatures and sat them up on a railing. These aren't part of the Christmas tradition -- we certainly can't plan on having such wet snow every year-- nor do I wish for such wet snow. We did end up with a mess!

Comments about Christmas traditions would be welcome. It's fun to learn how celebrations happen in other places.

No comments: