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I APPLAUD the BBC policy of not having Christmas decorations for their
television Breakfast Show on display too early this year. Viewers noticed that
the set was noticeably short of festive cheer and many complained, demanding to
know where the tree and tinsel had gone to and demanding that decorations be
installed.
I do not know whether the BBC was trying to be politically correct
but it was, nevertheless, traditionally correct.
It is argued that the PC brigade is taking the gloss off Christmas lest other
faiths should be offended. Well, I am a Christian who is not ashamed of
celebrating the festive season, but I cringe at the decorations, lights, tinsel
and canned Christmas music thrust upon me before the event.
This is not the Christmas season. It is Advent, the season that includes the
four Sundays preceding Christmas and a time when millions of Christians
worldwide have a time of quiet reflection, meditation, discipline, self-denial
and prayer, struggling to prepare for the wonderful Christmas message without
all these premature distractions. You will not find any sign of decoration, even
flowers, in any Christian church before Christmas Eve.
Christmas is a celebration of the birth of Christ. Do we celebrate our own
birth for weeks or months before the event?
Of course, we have to prepare for Christmas by buying and posting cards and
presents and shopping for extra provisions. But all this should be done quietly,
responsibly and thoughtfully without being bewildered and bombarded into the
festive season as early as November.
How many times have we heard people boasting that they are the first in their
street, village or town to have their tree up, the lights illuminated and
decorations in place, only to hear the same people complaining a couple of days
before Christmas that they will be "glad when it's all over" so that the stale
and sorry decorations can come down? By the very time they should be enjoyed,
people are fed up with seeing them. The round of Christmas parties is over
before the actual day of celebration.
No wonder we hear people complain that the days between Christmas and New Year
are flat and boring. We have forgotten the twelve days of Christmas. For
Christians, the Christmas celebrations start on Christ's birthday, not before,
and continue with parties and celebrations throughout the Christmas season until
Epiphany on January 6.
If we are afraid to push Christmas onto people of other faiths, please allow us
Christians to celebrate our special feast day at the correct time and do not
force it upon us too early.
WRITTEN DECEMBER 2006
NOTE: This article also appeared as a letter in
the Daily Mail on
Wednesday 13th December 2006.
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BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE: Philip Pettitt, aged
56, has been verger at the Abbey Church, Bourne, since 2003 and is a
member of the Church of England Guild of Vergers. He and his wife Alison
are dedicated workers for the church and for charity, devoting much of their time to the
Children's Society of which Philip is local branch secretary. |
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