It’s already begun. So many people would say it is already the Christmas season. Whether it started the day after Halloween or at 4pm on Thanksgiving Day, most of the country began putting up decorations and wishing each other a “Merry Christmas” or a “Happy Holidays.” People look forward to this time all year long, so once they get the chance to get started, they jump at the opportunity. And you know what? Fine. People are free to act as they see fit. But I’m also free – in fact, I’m obligated – to point out the truth. It’s not the Christmas season, not yet.
Even the phrase “Christmas Season” hints at the reason for this. A “season” is an external reality. We use the word to describe something that is beyond our control. No matter how eager we are, we cannot just decide that December is Summer. Even if we changed the words around, it wouldn’t make the day last any longer or the weather any warmer. The same is true for trying to call August the “Spring.” It wouldn’t make it any less hot and humid. Indeed, if someone insisted on calling January the “summer” and went outside dressed to swim, they could very well end up sick or worse.
The other part of that is where the phrase “Christmas Season” came from. It came from the Catholic Church. Very early on, probably by the year 400, the Catholic Church had divided up the year into Liturgical “seasons” that focused on various aspects of our redemption in Jesus Christ. Just as human beings have always lived their lives in cycles throughout the year, so our spiritual lives follow a cycle. While some names and dates have shifted some over the centuries, the same basic structure has always been in place. Christmas, Easter (or Pascha in most other languages), and Pentecost served as the pivotal points around which the year was built. Christmas and Easter in particular both got a “season” of preparation. This usually focused on extra prayer, penance, and charity as a way of purifying ourselves to better receive the gifts and graces from the great feasts of the Church.
So, even if everyone in the world decides to call November and December the “Christmas Season,” but the Church tells us the Christmas Season starts on the night of December 24th, it is the Church who is right. The point of this isn’t to rain on people’s fun. The analogy between natural seasons and liturgical seasons is helpful here. Just as treating winter like it was summer can be physically dangerous, so treating Advent like it is Christmas (or Lent like it’s Easter) can be spiritually dangerous. The seasons, both natural and liturgical, are one more aspect of God’s lesson to us that we are not in charge. Part of a healthy and holy human life is learning to accept reality and respond accordingly. It is a quality of humility to recognize that “freedom” doesn’t mean we do whatever we want, it means having the ability to freely choose to do what is good. God designed this universe and He guided salvation history. Learning that design and cooperating with it is much more freeing than stubbornly insisting on making it different than it is. Part of that design is that it is not the Christmas season yet. It is the Advent season. And Advent is a great season, offering something Christmas cannot.
So, make the most of Advent! It is still a season of Joy, but with particular focus on anticipation. It is the experience of not yet that gives it a unique flavor. Many people still like the challenge of Lent; Advent is similar to that. Try giving up something, holding off until Christmas to give yourself a more tangible sense of looking forward to it. Add on a daily Mass or devotional (like the one recommended on the next page) to foster a sense of moving towards something that isn’t yet here. And please, please try divert some, if not most of your giving toward people in real need, the ancient practice of giving alms. After all, it is the Birth of Christ we’re preparing for and by giving to the poor, we’re giving to God. A lot of those same people who start Christmas now are sick of it by the time Christmas is actually here. By honoring Advent, however, you’ll not only just be getting started, you’ll have had the joy of a whole season that many others simply missed.