It's that time again here at mwbh, where we attempt to blissfully ignore whatever is happening at the shopping malls. That's why we go online.
The decorations at Chez Alexandre don't go up right away. By the Third Sunday of Advent (Gaudete Sunday, when rose vestments are worn), we put up an unadorned artificial tree, and set the lights up around the front window. The tree is not decorated until Christmas Eve. They are not taken down until Twelfth Night (the sixth of January, the Feast of the Epiphany). The wreath on the door stays until Candlemas Day (the second of February, forty days after Christmas).
This will also be the site of special Advent presentations, including (we hope) three special talks on the meaning of the season. We also have some great ideas for making this a most blessed (and in some cases, less angst-ridden) holyday season.
So, kids, let's all stay tuned, and stay in touch.
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4 comments:
A fake tree?
A fake tree?
No going out into the cold and spending time picking out a nice tree, tying it to your roof, dragging it into the house with the needles everywhere, taking hours to put it in the stand so that it isn't lopsided? The delicious smell lingering throughout your house?
A fake tree?
No self-respecting Catholic Northerner has a fake tree.
Happy Advent
Carol McKinley
"No self-respecting Catholic Northerner has a fake tree."
Well, I'm a self-respecting Catholic Midwesterner, for all the difference that makes. I'm also one who has, for the last eighteen years, lives in small places, where only a two- or three-foot-tall tree was practical. And even then, it had to sit on a tabletop. I saw some rosemary bushes in pots at the market recently. They were a foot tall, and were in planters' pots. If they had been two feet tall, I would have broken down and bought one so I'd have a live tree.
My townhouse is small, about 800 square feet, with one bedroom and den. I'm not even sure where the tree will go this year. In any case, a live tree would be impractical.
Sounds lame, but my lifestyle is not given to spending a lot of time on domestic chores. I'm not home enough.
A real tree is not a chore. It's fun and beautiful and theologically symbolic. Don't be a poop.
:O)
Ah, Carol, it's nice to know you haven't lost that silver-tongued magic of yours. Nevertheless, a real tree is only a chore when you've no place to put it. And usually, I don't.
I'll see what I can find this year that's less than three feet, though. Stay tuned...
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