By REY FLORES
Once upon a time, there were many sad little pine trees, cut down from their roots before their time. Christmas was coming, so people demanded and wanted their Christmas trees. Thanksgiving Day dinner had not even been served, but Christmas was coming, and we must have our Christmas trees.
It used to be that the Friday after Thanksgiving Day was the first day to start doing your Christmas shopping, but now whenever the retailers can get away with it, they’ll start their Christmas promotions right after Halloween.
Black Friday they call it, because it’s the most profitable day of the year for retailers. In business terms, being “in the black” is much better than the negative profits which then put one’s business “in the red.”
Houses are already lit-up, decorated with lights, garish decorations of snowmen and reindeers, but hardly a sign of the Nativity. Santa Claus reigns in the premature secular Xmas holiday, despite the true meaning of this annual celebration.
Advent? What’s that?
By December 26, streets across the nation are strewn with discarded Christmas trees, trash cans overflowing with colorful gift wrap, bows and ribbons, with huge cardboard boxes which once held a brand-new flat screen TV or some other overpriced household gadget or another.
As the world is awash with advertisements about how important it is for us to spend money we don’t even have on gifts, just to prove how much we love one another, our church pews remain empty, for the most part.
Instead of joining the mob of mindless zombies crashing through the doors of Walmart’s and other retailers across our land, we should be on our knees thanking God not for what we want, but for what He has already blessed us with.
Rather than wasting our time watching mindless college football games, families should instead be throwing a football around their front or back yards, husbands and wives, mothers and fathers, brothers and sisters, all spending the short, precious time we have on this Earth.
Why is it that we have forgotten about Advent? Why is it that even most Catholics are jumping on the secular Xmas bandwagon? Why is it that we are in such a hurry to celebrate what the world wants us to “celebrate,” instead of our solemn preparation for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ?
Christmas is a time of joy, but we must be patient and wait until Christmas actually arrives on our calendars on December 25. Advent is a time of joy as well, but not in a Black Friday kind of way. More like a Good Friday kind of way, except with the anticipation of the birth of our Lord.
There aren’t any sweeter memories of my childhood than those of Christmas eves gone. Mother always had my sisters and me all dressed up in our Sunday best. Even my dad, who mostly wore his work uniform, would put on slacks, a dress shirt, and a sweater.
Christmas music played on the radio all day. The yummy aromas from the kitchen may as well have been coming from Heaven. There was a Polish Krakus ham, biscuits, mashed potatoes — and cookies before and after our meals.
The multicolored lights on our Christmas tree were blinking as if it were some magical concert of lights in tune with the heartbeat of our little hearts. My mom couldn’t help herself, so gifts all wrapped up in all sorts of giftwrap surrounded the tree like covered wagons. Christmas had finally gotten here!
One thing that I do not have memories of is a Nativity set. As wonderful my memories are of my mom Alicia making our Christmas as sweet and memorable for our family as possible, we never had a Nativity set. We did have an Advent calendar, but we weren’t aware of its meaning beside the fact that we got a piece of chocolate each day.
Instead of Christmas trees right after Thanksgiving Day, we need to have a Nativity set in a prominent part of our homes.
My wife Mary and I always prioritized this back when we still did that kind of thing. We would set up a beautiful Nativity set my mother-in-law gave us. It came complete with the shepherds, shepherd boy, the three kings, the barn animals, and of course Mary and Joseph.
We would wake up our little ones on Christmas morning to finally reveal the sweet Baby Jesus who finally arrived to fill the cradle in the midst of it all. Christmas had arrived, and our children knew the true meaning of it.
Yes, there are the gifts, of course. As parents, we cannot help ourselves by trying to maintain traditions which our own parents kept alive for us. Yes, there’s a guilty pleasure in giving our children a toy which they had desired for months, but that is an aside and just another secondary factor of the Christmas holiday.
Advent is a beautiful opportunity for us to grow closer to our Lord by practicing the virtue of patience. We mustn’t need instant gratification at every moment in our lives. Christmas is surely on its way; no need to literally buy into the Xmas frenzy of the world. Ours is a much more meaningful and beautiful celebration.
No giftwrap needed, no Amazon, no shopping malls, no Black Friday insanity, no credit cards, no stress and worries about what we cannot give. Let us all give ourselves and each other the simplest, but greatest gift of all, and it costs us nothing but a little time and kindness.
The gift of our Lord is the greatest gift of all. I wish you and your loved ones the greatest and most blessed Advent seasons of all.
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(Rey Flores writes opinion and book and movie reviews for The Wanderer. Contact Rey at reyfloresusa@gmail.com.)
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