Blurry Lines and Mish Mash Songs
This entry is the first in a series of blogs that present new ways that familiar Christmas music, both secular and religious, can enlarge our Spirits and deepen our exploration of the Advent and Christmas seasons.
I have always loved the song Here Comes Santa Claus, not because it is great music, but because it seems to be the perfect mash-up of Christmas from a child’s point of view. It goes back and forth effortlessly between the idea of Santa Claus and God and just squishes them all together, just like many children do. My favorite version of this song is an old one by Gene Autry. I love his country-style pronunciation of Santy Claus, which reminds me of the way my husband’s grandmother always referred to that jolly old elf. If it’s been a while since you heard it, pause and do a YouTube search, listen … then read on.
Could there be a more mixed up and happy way to think about Christmas? Hang your stockings and say your prayers, Autry twangs… Santa knows we’re all God’s children and that makes everything right….Peace on earth will come to all if we just follow the Light. Let’s give thanks to the Lord above ‘cause Santy Claus comes tonight…. What a happy mess of a song! The lyrics pay no attention to the separation between a religious and secular Christmas. Imperfect theology? No doubt! Delightful and charming? Definitely!
I’m sure this song appeals to me because it perfectly describes the way we always celebrated Christmas in my family when I was a child. We enthusiastically embraced all things Christmas. We didn’t draw lines between our family and cultural traditions and our heartfelt and genuine faith. We decorated the Christmas tree and set up the Holy Family right beside it. We helped produce our church’s live nativity, wrapping ourselves in old sheets and placing tinsel haloes on our heads as we climbed on the church roof to announce Christ’s birth. I made a list for Santa Claus and with child-like innocence, prayed that God would somehow let the hope-for toys appear under the tree. We waited in lines to visit Santa Claus and searched for his sleigh in the night sky. We sang beautiful carols and joined in the Advent rituals of candle-lighting and communion… but Christmas Eve and Christmas morning? Those were reserved for presents and that sweet anticipation of Santa Claus’ mysterious visit.
Everything happily blurred into one big celebration time. While a few religious types preached to us about the true meaning of Christmas, I don’t recall them forbidding Santa’s arrival. We didn’t worry about what was “right” or that our faith was somehow eroding in the onslaught of popular, worldly Christmas customs. We just Hung our stockings and said our prayers. No enlightened parent experts chided us for indulging in the fantasy of Santa Claus or warned that our mixed messages were harmful. We prayed for peace on earth, and glowed in the outpouring of the Season’s generosity, wherever it came from and whomever distributed it. The years rolled on, and soon I had my own growing family. We continued our rather circuitous, inclusive path towards Christmas Day, creating a joyful, sometimes confusing, mix of devotion and decorations. In the midst of it all, we kept our priorities straight about the true meaning of Christmas while we opened our arms to many delightful, non-religious traditions. Prayers and letters to Santa were both accepted—not equal in meaning, of course, but accepted nonetheless. And I must be honest– What generated the most anticipation in my children’s lives? Methinks it was not lighting an Advent candle as a family, although that was very meaningful … No, I suspect it was Santa’s visit that won out in the “I can hardly wait” category. Oh yes, we were faithful and clear about the Reason for the Season— We just didn’t focus on separating the many ways we celebrated. Were our ways disrespectful of the timeless story of Jesus’ Birth? Not in the least. Did decorating a Christmas tree somehow negate the Season’s true purpose? Not at all. It all meant Christmas, and Christmas meant wonder and hope and excitement and love.
While it is important to be sure and grounded in the foundations of our faith, there is also a place in our lives for rather blurry images, where secular traditions meet sacred ones. These experiences give us the opportunity to experience Godly renewal within the contexts of our daily lives and to personalize our relationship with the Divine. I am reminded of the sculptor Medardo Rosso who is known for his deliberately blurry creations. Here is one of his works that is just right for the season: Behold the Boy.
Photo Credit: www.wikiart.org
Blurry and beautiful, vague and yet defined…. We are left to contemplate why it was important to the artist to leave his sculpture in this unfinished state. Was it to leave room for interpretation and clarity in the eye of the beholder? Perhaps the artist was comfortable with the unfinished, messy lives we lead and wanted to portray a form in an ever- emerging state. This Advent Season, we are asked to do the same: to love and let beauty emerge, whatever form that takes. There is much to understand and wonder about in this rich time of year. Jesus was both fully Divine and fully human at the same time, which is simultaneously crystal clear and a deep mystery. There truly is no demarcation necessary. Jesus was and is and will never fit neatly into a single description. Sometimes the lines get blurry in my family’s mish-mash of Christmas traditions, but the Image behind them all— well, that is startlingly clear. As we begin Advent and I reflect on my own Christmas practices, I relax into the knowledge of a deep and focused faith at the heart of things. I can comfortably decorate this faith with the trappings of the season.
So…Here’s to the Black Friday spending frenzy of Christmas and the benevolent uptick in giving that also occurs at this time. Here’s to the Christmas Cantata performed this Sunday at our church and the silly floats of elves and costumed toys in my community’s upcoming Christmas parade. Here’s to the blurry, meltingly lovely Behold the Child and to Michelangelo’s precise and exquisite Madonna and Child. And… Here’s to the eloquent O Holy Night and the silly Here Comes Santy Claus. While these songs of the season cannot compare in either composition or expressions of faith, they do both describe moments of wonder and anticipation and joy. I open my voice and heart to them all.
As we roll the Christmas decorations out of storage and festoon our home with trees, lights, bows, and fake snow sprinkled on every available surface, we will reserve a special place of honor for our Nativity figures, placing them carefully as daily reminders of the Season’s meaning. We will smile as the Christmas Channel on our satellite radio rings with songs about flying reindeer, quickly followed by descriptions of Angels singing on high. Yet, there is no true confusion about the One whom we celebrate and why we observe this event. And all the rest of it? We gather it all in, filling our arms with mounds of tinsel and our lives with sparkle and sentiment.
I hope that you will say your prayers during this Advent season…. and I hope you will hang your stockings too. As for me, I’ll Give Thanks to the Lord Above for this messy, hazy, blurry time– a time that in multiple ways and with mixed messages, points toward the embodied Light of Love and the spirit of generosity and joy in a world that needs double doses of each.
Reflection Questions:
In what ways do your Christmas preparations reflect your family’s understandings of the meanings of Christmas?
This blog may stir up strong feelings about how Advent and Christmas “should” be celebrated. Reflect on your ideas about the wisdom of blending secular and religious practices during holidays. What choices do you embrace and what do you limit or reject? Why?
Stocking Photo by Jason Coudriet on Unsplash
