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Christmastime Traditions

Christmastime De-Funked

I've become enthralled, as of late, with this idea of the incarnation — that God would show up and become one of us. It truly is fascinating: The extraordinary God chose to become utterly pedestrian — usual — a helpless baby, all so He might redeem us, His fallen creation, to Himself.

Beautiful.

But I haven't always been so enamored with celebrating the arrival of the Christ child.

Back in college, I didn't much look forward to the season of advent; it wasn't really on my radar screen. I was more pleased to put my mental faculties toward getting done with another semester of classes, and then to catching my breath. Plus, as I progressed through college, I became increasingly disenchanted with the more secularized parts of the season, primarily the whole gift giving thing. Seemed to me, retailers had co-opted the holiday, giving us capitalists an excuse to indulge our consumerist tendencies.

More or less, I had all the right ingredients for a good batch of youthful cynicism, which is, sad to say, a little chic these days; I was glad to indulge.

It's taken me a while, but I've managed to work my way out of that annual funk. In the midst of my de-funking, I've realized part of my problem: a lack of tradition.

I truly believe that, had I not been uprooted and otherwise removed from the holiday traditions to which I had become so accustomed, and had so delighted in, during my childhood, I wouldn't have lost my fervor for the glory and mystery of Christ's coming to earth. Without tradition, I was distracted from the celebration, from the "reasons for the season," as they say … or as my mom's holiday lapel pin says, anyway.

What I'm trying to say is that I've come to a conclusion, and it's this: Tradition is, I believe, a vital part of — a necessary discipline for — living the Christian life. Especially at Christmastime.

Traditional Relationships

As Christians, we're familiar with the fact that we are, down in our deepest parts, relational creatures. A most basic part of our theology informs us that God made us to need connections to things other than ourselves. I think that's part of what God was proclaiming in Genesis 1:26 when He said, "Let us make man in our image …" (NIV). God exists in Trinity, in relationship with Himself. Being made in His image, we need relationships — connection — too. The most capital of relationships, of course, is our relationship with Christ; it is through this relationship that we ultimately find our identity. But for some reason or another, God created us to need one another as well. None of us could ever truly thrive in a vacuum.¹ Somehow, someway, our connections to other people shape our concept of who we are.

But human relationships aren't the point of this article, so I'll get on with it: This need for connection, for constancy, extends, I think, to time as well. Perhaps we aren't truly ourselves when we aren't participating in some way with the times and places we've come from. That is to say, when we're disconnected from our pasts, we're prone to forget who we are and what we're about.

That's why I think tradition is so important. It keeps us aligned and reminds us, especially during this season, why we bother memorializing the birth of a little Jewish baby. We do it because it is about our God becoming one of us. Ultimately, traditions help remind us He really did come, that we really are His.

Old Time Traditions

That traditions inform us of who we are and why we do what we do isn't a new idea — not in the least. You find it throughout the Bible, particularly in the Old Testament.

A while back I wrote an article called, "Trusting God: Remembering as a Spiritual Discipline." In it, I discussed that God commanded the Israelite nation to remember — specifically, His faithfulness in their lives. It's this remembering that informed them that God was in their midst always, that "God is present. God is acting. God delivers."

God knew, however, the Hebrew nation would likely not remember who they were (which they often didn't) and so He commanded their remembering be entrenched in regular celebrations. In traditions, basically.

Perhaps you're familiar with some of these traditions — Passover, for instance. The Passover holiday commemorates the Israelites' liberation from their enslavement in Egypt. According to one commentary, the holiday is significant also because it happens at springtime:

Following the bleakness of winter when everything is covered with the shrouds of snow, spring marks the rebirth of the earth with the bursting forth of green life. Similarly, a people enshackled in oppressive slavery, doomed to a slow process of degradation or even extinction, bursts forth out of Egypt into a new life's journey leading to a land flowing with milk and honey.²

In other words, the Passover tradition — including the enchanting Seder meal — serves as a reminder to the Jews that they are to be a people of hope, that they should expect God's faithfulness.

Sukkot is another Jewish tradition-holiday. Known more commonly to the rest of us as the "Festival of Booths," God commanded this tradition of the Jews so " 'your descendants will know that I had the Israelites live in booths when I brought them out of Egypt' " (Leviticus 23:43). Again, sukkot reminds the Jews of God's steadfastness and their heritage as His people.

Other traditions weren't observed in conjunction with celebrations, but served as reminders just the same. For example, God commanded the Israelites not to "reap to the very edges of your field" or "go over your vineyard a second time or pick up the grapes that have fallen," but to leave them "for the poor and the alien" (Leviticus 19:9-10). Remember when you were a destitute people? God seems to be saying. What you do for the poor now is what I have done, and continue to do, for you.

Essentially, God commanded the Israelites to take part in tradition so they would remember who they were. He wanted them to know, to be reminded regularly, that they were not just some small, insignificant group of Middle Easterners, but a people called out by the very God of the universe, and through whom He would bring salvation to all of creation.

New (School) Traditions

So, what's a college student to do? I mean, you're out of the nest, footloose and tradition-free, mostly. Probably, you aren't able to participate in those traditions you've counted on throughout your life to usher you into the spirit of the advent season.

Well, I do simple things. I drink egg nog (as unhealthy as it is). I listen to the same music my family and I listened to way back when — which means an old Johnny Mathis cassette taped from an actual record (you can still hear the scratchy rotations of the LP) and the sweet synth beats of my family's several Mannheim Steamroller Christmas CDs. Also, I've put up lights here at my work desk. They remind me of when I used to sit by our plastic Christmas tree, with all the lights off in our living room, save the singular string of white lights on the tree.

You might consider starting your own traditions with your friends, like door-to-door caroling, or some sort of gift exchange and a reading of the Christmas story from Luke. Whatever you do, make it creative, and make it meaningful. Also, be sure to repeat it next year.

And as much as you're able — whenever, or if ever, you return home this Christmas season — I encourage you to participate in your family's Christmastime traditions. Whether they're simple or involved, sacred or particularly mundane, you may very well find that they're strangely compelling — that the consistency with which your family has carried out its traditions year after year points to the consistency with which God loves you.

Me, I've already asked my mom to make cinnamon rolls on Christmas Eve. She fashions them into the shape of a Christmas tree, and puts green-colored frosting on them. They taste the same as any other cinnamon rolls any other time of year, but it's something we've done, post-Christmas Eve service, for a while now. It's a tradition that it makes me feel connected — to my family, to my past, and to the One whose incarnation our "tree" will be commemorating.

C O F F E E  S H O P

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What are your favorite Christmastime traditions?

Join the discussion!

Whatever traditions you find yourself participating in this Christmas season, use them: As you sing "Silent Night," or wax grateful for that amazing white elephant gift, remind yourself that Christ has come to earth, humbly, to redeem the world to Himself.

If your traditions remind you of that fact, they are traditions worth keeping.