Christmas Eve services

One of the things I always enjoy about Christmas is the services at church on Christmas Eve. When I was growing up, my family went to a small church where we had a candle-light service. The sanctuary was always perfectly decorated with evergreen and a Christmas tree, and on the Sundays leading up to Christmas we had lit the advent candles.

If I remember right, and it’s been years since I went to this church, the last advent candle was lit that evening. It was always a very solemn but beautiful service. Even as a child it helped me remember, even if just for a moment, what the spirit of Christmas should really be about.

Later, in a different church, there was a tradition of decorating the Chrismon tree. The pastor always had the women of the church do the honors, and we would read a little snippet about the significance of whatever ornament we were placing on the tree. On Christmas Eve, the pastor would hold a short service and one year even did a little walk-through play where some of the elders were dressed as wise men. The service was always late in the evening, which fit into our family’s Christmas Eve schedule well. We’d go to my grandmother’s for dinner and presents and then to church.

The church we go to now has an early Christmas Eve service, which is different, but since it only lasts about half an hour, it’s easy to go to the service and then to my grandmother’s to see family.

I’ll be curious to see how this year’s Christmas Eve goes since we’ll be out of town. Going to see family in Ohio, I’m not sure what their traditions are. Since we have family so spread out, I guess we’ll have to come up with some traditions we can carry with us when we’re away from home. One thing’s for sure, even if we can’t make a Christmas Eve service at church, I want to be sure that our family takes the time to remember what it’s all about.

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Christmas Eve services

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