The Twelve Days of Christmas - more than just a load of unwanted birds?
Gill H
Shipmate
To explain the title, do yourself a favour and look up Frank Kelly's wonderful Irish version of 'The Twelve Days of Christmas' which tells the story through an increasingly irate series of letters from the recipient of the gifts.
My Dad is having great fun confusing the various carers who come to look after my Mum. Every time a different carer arrives, the conversation goes...
"Happy new year! Have you had a nice Christmas?"
"Well, so far. It's only Day Nine yet."
"????"
If my various social media connections are any guide, most people put their Christmas decorations up in early December if not before, and many took them down on Boxing Day or at latest by New Year's Day, for a 'fresh start' to the new year.
By contrast, my Dad never put his up until Christmas Eve. When I was growing up, this was partly because my birthday was on 16 December and after that, as a vicarage family, we never had a moment free! And the fact that 6 January is Dad's birthday meant it was the obvious time for the decorations to come down, to make room for the birthday cards.
However, these days, unless you are at a church service, Christmas is well and truly over by now, even if some of us still have decorations up. Is there really any point in continuing to observe the twelve days of Christmas? Is it an opportunity to concentrate on Jesus now the Santa-fest is done? Or is it just another instance of the church being completely at odds with the rhythms of the world's year, and irrelevant to all but a few?
What do the twelve days of Christmas mean to you?
My Dad is having great fun confusing the various carers who come to look after my Mum. Every time a different carer arrives, the conversation goes...
"Happy new year! Have you had a nice Christmas?"
"Well, so far. It's only Day Nine yet."
"????"
If my various social media connections are any guide, most people put their Christmas decorations up in early December if not before, and many took them down on Boxing Day or at latest by New Year's Day, for a 'fresh start' to the new year.
By contrast, my Dad never put his up until Christmas Eve. When I was growing up, this was partly because my birthday was on 16 December and after that, as a vicarage family, we never had a moment free! And the fact that 6 January is Dad's birthday meant it was the obvious time for the decorations to come down, to make room for the birthday cards.
However, these days, unless you are at a church service, Christmas is well and truly over by now, even if some of us still have decorations up. Is there really any point in continuing to observe the twelve days of Christmas? Is it an opportunity to concentrate on Jesus now the Santa-fest is done? Or is it just another instance of the church being completely at odds with the rhythms of the world's year, and irrelevant to all but a few?
What do the twelve days of Christmas mean to you?
Comments
Spanish speakers and Spanish cultural areas represent a significant part of the world's .population.
I think the bringing forward of Christmas for churches started with Christingle services, which many of the "unchurched" (for lack of a better word) regard as being part of Christmas, and carol services also being before Christmas.
For me the Twelve Days mean frantic hard work on the first day, semi-exhaustion on the second, and then I use the remainder to sort out the choir library, finish music planning for the Lent Term, and get ready for the glut of family birthdays - 2nd, 4th, 20th & 28th January, 2nd, 12th, 15th, 18th & 19th & February.
I know there are Americans who don’t put their trees or decorations up until Christmas Eve—there may even be one or two on the Ship?—but I’ve never encountered such people in real life.
For secondary school I went to a certain "religious, royal and ancient" boarding school . They resisted any Xmas decorations (as we were supposed to be working) until the final week of term. On the final Saturday night of term the "fairies" (senior pupils) would put up decorations while the juniors were in bed. The final week would then be a whirl of carol service, carol concert and Xmas lunch. Once home (usually the weekend before Xmas) I would help her put up the decorations and help her take them down again before returning to school (usually around Epiphany).
The former Mr Wanderer (he's Catholic, I'm Anglican) liked decorations to go up on Xmas Eve but I always felt that left too much to do at the last minute and I didn't want to be exhausted for Christmas day. So now he's out of the picture I have reverted to the last weekend before Xmas. My boys campaign for it to be earlier but I relented only as far as " once the schools have broken up" - I feel decorations are part of holiday time, I want to sit and enjoy looking at them, not be rushing out to work.
A tradition of my mother's that I have kept (I think it was just her thing, I've never come across anyone else who does this) is 12 day gifts for the children - stocking filler type items, one a day for the duration of the 12 days of Xmas. For my boys I write numbers on scraps of wrapping paper in a bowl (when my mother did it for me it was items on the tree). theThey pick one to exchange for something on my list: sweets or Lego mini figures for the younger Wanderer and paints or sweets for the older Wanderer.
Decorations will come down on Twelfth night. I find January far more depressing than November (seems like a collective hangover with nothing to look forward to until Spring) so really wish I could leave lights up until Candlemas but think the neighbours would find us too odd.
*Winterfest* is over for most people, but, as others have said, at least the Church continues with the Nativity story for a while with Epiphany, and Candlemas.