Remember how the song goes: “On the first day of Christmas, my true love gave to me” and so on. Or maybe I shouldn’t bring that up, maybe you’ve had it and then some with the Christmas music already.
It’s over. Throw out that tree, sweep up those needles, get organized and lose 10 pounds while you’re at it. Isn’t that how our hurry-up what’s-next culture approaches these final days of the year?
Sometime today, I know I’ll be driving down the street and see a jarring sight — a bare Christmas tree that’s been kicked to the curb, probably several of them. To me, the holiday season I’ve prepared for is only now beginning.
That carol called “The Twelve Days of Christmas” isn’t just some sing-song children’s brain teaser. It means something. Obviously the partridge, turtle doves and the rest of it bear no resemblance to anyone’s gift list today. I’m like everybody this week, figuring out new electronic toys and finding places to store new sweaters.
Forget the French hens, drummers drumming and all that other stuff. Before you trash the tree, consider the song’s calendar — which is also the calendar of Christians who follow Western liturgical church traditions.
Christmas doesn’t start the day after Halloween. It doesn’t start the day after Thanksgiving. When I was growing up, our tradition was to wait to put up a tree until after my mother’s birthday, Dec. 18, but Christmas doesn’t start then, either.
Christmas starts on Christmas.
Up until Dec. 24, it’s Advent, a season of preparation. The 12 days of Christmas span the time between Christmas and Epiphany on Jan. 6. Also called Twelfth Day or Three Kings Day, it’s celebrated in many churches as the day the Magi or wise men brought gifts to the infant Jesus. Look at those greeting cards you’re about to recycle, you’ll see images of the biblical story.
Sorry for this tedious lesson on the liturgical year, I only meant to explain why I’ll be grouchy when I see discarded trees today.
It’s not all about religion with me. In my church, Christmas carols aren’t heard until Christmas Eve (“Oh Come, Oh Come Emmanuel” is an Advent hymn). At home, I’ve been listening to carols for weeks. The thing is, what’s true on my church’s calendar is also true in my life.
For the next week or so, I’ll enjoy a few of my favorite things. Without having to race around shopping or cooking or decorating, there’s time to relish Christmas. I’ll enjoy having my kids around and seeing their friends. I’ll go for walks, which I haven’t had time for lately, and check out the decorations around the neighborhood. I’ll make dinners out of all the leftovers. I’ll go to church and sing Christmas music — because it’s Christmas, still.
My sister called a couple days before the holiday. A second-grade teacher, she was in a hurry, packing for a quick Christmas trip from Spokane to see us. After we compared notes on how much gift wrapping we each had left to do, she said she was hoping for a day, one quiet day, to stay home and hang out by the Christmas tree.
“I love the lights,” she said.
Today, with her husband and son, she’s heading back over the mountains for home. I hope she gets that day, with her Christmas tree and her family. If you ask me, now is the best part of the season.
And when I see those abandoned trees today, all I can think is that somebody celebrated something — but I wouldn’t call it Christmas.
Columnist Julie Muhlstein: 425-339-3460 or muhlstein@heraldnet.com.
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
