Christmas trees during Advent

As lay people we live and work and participate in the secular (but Christian influenced) world (that is if we live in particular parts of the world).  As such, we cannot avoid the commercialization of Christmas.  Christmas is not going back into the Dec. 25- January 8th box that the Catholic and Orthodox Christians put it in.  Santa is not going to be renamed St. Nicholas.

That doesn't mean, of course, that we have to lay down and dump the traditions of our faith.  Nor do we have to dig our heels in the sand and sit outside of our culture.   As lay people most of us sit somewhere in the middle.

So here are some thoughts on how to have a Christmas tree during Advent.

1. You can wait until Christmas eve to put up a Christmas tree.  

Lets be real. This option is highly unusual. Your kids might hate you for it  You might just want to join in the Christmas spirit or maybe you get more time off before Christmas and it works better in your schedule...so maybe not.

If you go this route the good thing is your tree will be fresh for the entirety of the Christmas season. You won't have to wipe Christmas tree needles off of the presents before yo open them.

2. You can decorate it week by week

We used to do this. Frankly I think it is a great idea but for some reason it doesn't work in our life very well.  The idea behind this is.
1st week of Advent: get tree
2nd week of Advent: Put lights on tree
3rd weeks of Advent: Put ornaments on tree
4th week of Advent: put garland and anything else
CHristmas Eve: Put on the star

3. Decorate it- almost but with a temporary purple

We usually wait until the 2nd week of advent to get a tree.  We set it up, put lights on it and decorate except we put a kind of ugly purple garland on it.  It is just strips of purple cloth on the tree.  We wrap it around.  We also don't put on a star.

THEN on Christmas eve we decorate the house for Christmas.  We put away our Advent wreathe, we put away our Advent calendar, we put up Christmas decorations and we TAKE OFF the ugly purple cloth and put on sparkly gold and silver garland.  Then we put the star on the tree (this year that caused some tears but you know...)

4. Decorate it like it is already CHristmas
If i am going to put don't put up a tree until Christmas then I think I can advise that to decorate it like it is Christmas is okay too. Your kids know it's not Christmas.  You aren't fooling yourself into thinking it's Christmas.  If you are doing some things for Advent and you just really want the tree up, or your family wants the tree up or whatever just let it be.  Celebrating the liturgical seasons in our homes doesn't have to be perfect.


Finally, I think it is really powerful to talk to kids about why the tree.  In the season of darkness and during the time where the world looks like things are dying it is a powerful symbol to bring a green symbol of life into our homes.  The symbol of the Christmas tree is a symbol of the resurrection.  That life goes on despite the lack of life all around us.  That might not be the root source of the Christmas tree but that's why the symbol lingers....