Christmas Is Not Over

I’ve never understood how and why many people, among them some of the most devout Christians I know, know so little about what Christmas really is. As early as last night, families began taking down decorations and dumping Christmas trees out on the curb. By today, there will probably be Valentine’s Day candy on the shelves at the grocery store next to the half-off Christmas cards (make sure to stock up for next year). But why? After all, there’s nearly two weeks left in Christmas. That’s right. It’s only just begun.

I began to realize the depth of this confusion back in high school. I was driving a friend home from a New Year’s party around mid-morning on Jan. 1. As we drove through a neighborhood, she saw a house that still had a Christmas wreath on the front door.

“Oh, no,” she said. “They’re gonna have bad luck.” When I asked why, she went on to explain that superstition dictates bad luck if you don’t take your Christmas decorations down by New Year’s morning. That’s ridiculous, though perhaps it explains a lot of the problems my family and I have had over the years, because New Year’s Day is nearly a week before we begin taking Christmas stuff down.

You see, Dec. 25 is just the first day of Christmas. Yes, as in the song “The 12 Days of Christmas.” We all know the story of the birth of Jesus in a stable in Bethlehem. That day, of course, is celebrated each year on Dec. 25 (a date chosen by the Christian church likely more than 300 years after the birth of Christ). But what a lot of people seem to forget is the story of the three wise men. They did not show up to see the baby in the manger that same night. Instead, their journey took several days. Epiphany, celebrated on Jan. 6, marks the arrival of the three kings or magi, and it is when they presented Jesus with gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh. That, of course, led to the tradition of giving gifts for Christmas. In some countries, though, that gift giving is carried out even more traditionally on Jan. 6, the 12th day of Christmas, and not on Dec. 25.

My point is that if Christmas is already over for you, you’re missing the point of the holiday. It is not about one day of giving gifts and celebrating the birth of Christ. It is a nearly two-week long celebration of that momentous day for nearly two billion Christians worldwide. So get your act together and get to the pet store and see if you can find a couple of turtle doves for your true love.