It's Still Christmas
It’s still Christmas Time
The lights are down, the trees are put up (yes my wife insists on putting up more than one tree), and the house is almost back to normal. While I am thrilled to be done with Christmas decorations, I’m fully aware that I’m doing this wrong. Christmas isn’t over, at least not yet. Today is the official last day of Christmas. I know what you’re thinking, but remember the song with the most ridiculous Christmas gifts, the 12 Days of Christmas. It’s not just a silly song about birds and impractical gifts. Well, I take that back. It really is just a silly song but the one thing it gets right is that there are actually 12 days of Christmas. Advent, what we sometimes think of Christmas time, is really a time of expectation leading up to Christmas, and then the church calendar does something a bit odd. On Christmas Day we enter Christmas time, and then we’re in Christmas time for 12 days before we hit Epiphany on January 6. (And oddly enough, Epiphany is also the day of Epiphany and starts the season of Epiphany that runs until we start Lent on Ash Wednesday).
Despite what Amazon and other retailers might make you think, the 12 days of Christmas really isn’t a made up thing just to sell more junk to consumers. A lot of people believe that this 12 day period represents the time it took the magi to get to Jesus. Like most things Christmas related, it’s completely wrong. Realistically Jesus was probably closer to two years old by the time the wisemen got to him (the main context clue is where Herod orders all kids two and under to be killed) but there are various other indications to support that conclusion. But the real reason it’s wrong is because Christmastide (the 12 days of Christmas) was created in 567 at the Council of Tours to bring together the East and West churches who celebrated Christmas as either Dec. 25 or Jan 6.
So technically speaking, you should leave you Christmas tree up until Jan 6th. Practically speaking, put it away whenever you want to. We don’t celebrate the feasts of saints that traditionally go along with it, we definitely don’t give flocks of birds as gifts, and as Methodists we are on the fringe of observing the traditional high church holy days yet not really going deep into all the traditions. Just know, that I will never complain about Christmas decorations being put away.