This is the article that was supposed to post last month but didn't. The reason is simple enough: I never know who is going to read this. Since complaints tend to sound worse secondhand, it seemed prudent to do some preemptive damage control. That mission successfully completed, let the rant begin!



Christmas cheer took an early hit this year. The church bulletin announced that the Christmas Eve Candlelighting Ceremony would be on December 22nd.

It sounds to me like people want to have their Christmas cookie and to eat it too. All the fun of a candlelight service with none of the inconvenience or sacrifice. So much for the lights in the firmament of the heaven being for signs, and for seasons, and for days and years. Don't find the date convenient? That's okay, we'll just ratchet our waning gibbous moon back to full.

The pagans are not so cavalier about it. I had to check, and we are okay for 2010. Solstice is on the 21st at 23:38 (or 11:38pm) UTC this year, so that gives us 22 minutes to spare. But some years, a candle lighting on the 22nd would be sharing the glow with the wiccan Sabbat of the Yule. That is just wrong.

That is not my biggest complaint though. That is just the one that sounds good.

My biggest complaint sounds selfish. My biggest complaint is that moving Christmas Eve services to the 22nd robs me of my power. If the candle lighting were on the real eve, I could get my entire family to church. With two working retail and one living a hundred miles away, it is not going to happen on the 22nd.

Ah, the irony. It seems that some folks don't want a Christmas eve candle lighting on the real Christmas eve because they "want to spend time at home with their family." That type of reasoning makes me feel like an Asperger kid. I do not connect the dots. Spending family time at home seems pretty ordinary to my kids. What would make Christmas Eve special would be going to church as a family and singing a very old and very traditional carol slightly off key. Then we would come home and have chocolate mousse before bed.

I am not stupid. I know what is going to happen. One will say, "Well, mom, since you don't have anything special planned, I'll just come over in the morning." And another, "Can I borrow some wrapping paper? I didn't wrap my stuff yet since you didn't have anything planned." Then they will be off to another room with the door shut tight. Or this, "My friend asked me to go hear their church's bell choir, and since our family isn't doing anything, I said yes."

So what would I like in a church? I would like a little support in keeping the light of Christmas Eve focused where it ought to be.


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