IrishOboe

And a Merry Christmas to you! We're home from a very nice church service with traditional candles with Silent Night -- our "live light" though not on the tree. We love you!

Good observation on the tree. We usually have a Nordmann Fir, but apparently this year there was a shortage and so for the first time we had a Silver Fir instead, which has shorter, less dense needles.

Merry Christmas!

We always had a Fraser Fir, which seems to me even fuller than the Nordmann Fir. This site shows the Fraser Fir and other full trees Americans like. http://www.hagueschristmastrees.com/types.htm

But I guess that fits the idea that everything is bigger in America . . .

Speaking of scarves - thank you Janet for the great one you made me. I used it playing outside with the nephews on Christmas day.

Or, one could say, everything has become bigger in America. When I was growing up (okay, that was a while ago) there were many, many different kinds of Christmas trees, and it seemed we had a different variety each year. Some were quite "scrawny" by today's standards, but they had character. My theory is that "factory farming" has taken over in the Christmas tree market as well. You can't complain about the quantity, and the overall quality may be in many ways better -- but much of the flavor and diversity has been lost.

No, I'm not going to campaign for "unpasteurized" Christmas trees. :) And I have to say I'm grateful we were able to get lovely Frasier firs in Florida, which wouldn't have been possible without modern transportation and Christmas tree agriculture. But I'm glad you were able to experience something a little different.

Merry Christmas Janet!

I'm probably opening up a whole new can of worms here, but the Christmas tree topic was just too sugary sweet and pleasant for your site -- if no one else is going to incite controversy, then I'll have to step up to the plate myself (I am winking)...

Seriously, why is everyone "okay" with Christmas trees? I'm not saying this as an accusation at all -- actually I'm just bewildered by it. Confused. All I've read (and I probably haven't read enough) is that the tradition MIGHT have been started with Martin Luther, but even that is doubtful, apparently. And the reasons for claiming it as a "Christian" tradition have always seemed like a real stretch to me, since there's no evidence for the whole live-tree-in-the-home in Scripture. I just want to understand what's so "Christian" about a Christmas tree? I'm more inclined to believe it was a Roman pagan tradition that someone tried to Christianize -- like the very date of Christmas itself... (yet another can of worms).

I tend to be a scrooge but if someone wants to educate me I'm certainly teachable...and very interested in all this. Jesus told us to remember his death and resurrection, and obviously God ordained that a full human life from conception to adulthood had to occur first for the death and resurrection to be possible, but did God intend for Christmas to trump Easter in our celebrations, which it seems to have done?

My original question, though, is only about the Christmas tree -- why it gets so much attention from Christians. Do we need to have a Scriptural basis to have a Christmas tree, etc.

Sorry to leave such a long comment but I figure one of the smart people that read your blog might be happy to take on my inquiry. :)

Love you Janet!! :)
(And personally I do find Christmas trees of all shapes and sizes beautiful.)

Alright--I confess, I did pick out the scarf. :)But I can't believe he told you that!!! He could have kept it a secret and I would never have told! Scarfs were his idea though--when I bumped into him he already knew he wanted to get scarfs--I only offered some encouragment on the color choice, that's all.

Sarah W.: If we admit that Christmas has "trumped" Good Friday and Easter, which in many ways it has, then I don't think the tree's to blame. It's not getting a tree that causes the stress and excitement - as far as I can tell, it's the gift-giving.

Of course you are right, Christmas trees aren't biblical. That said, we have developed many non-biblical traditions that despite being extra-scriptural help us in understanding Scripture. Think of liturgical colors, or the Advent wreath, or Lent, or certain meals for certain events, or even the concept of having private devotional times.

So while we realize that some of these traditions aren't from the Bible, and the Christmas tree is among them, and that the money spent for a Christmas tree could well be spent for other worthy causes, and that the efforts and expenses for Christmas compared to the efforts and expenses for Easter seem out of proportion, we also admit that we like them and find them useful. Moreover, if we are indeed striving to have the efforts and expenses for a certain event reflect its relative importance, then we'll get into trouble with other events where we're loath to give up the traditional celebrations - Thanksgiving, 4th of July, even weddings...

Steph: Good job on the color choice. And kudos to Nigel for knowing how to acquire the free services of an expert consultant!

...like it and find it useful...

Now there's and advantage to the time difference. I read the blog too late at night to make a response, think about what I'm going to say all night, and wake up to find that Stephan has already said it. :)

Merry Christmas Amazon woman! I hope you have had and continue to have a wonderful time of Christmas celebrations while overseas. I thought I would share with you a funny coincidence with the gift exchange in my family. I had bought everyone European chocolate from Aldi's. I had wanted to get the Belgium truffles but for some reason they never came in to my Aldi's this year. Instead, I got some of the large dark and milk chocolate bars for everyone to enjoy. One of my gifts was American chocolate -Hershey's bars. I thought it was funny. Anyhow, it was a good Christmas.

Wow, wholesale agreement! I'm not used to that... ;-)

Jimmy: I feel for you. Hershey's bars... do I have your mailing address?

Now that I have a few more minutes, I'll just add that I am a big fan of meaningful symbols and traditions, and they don't need to have a direct connection to the thing symbolized or remembered. I wouldn't expect a Christian from, say, Papua New Guinea, to have any mental or emotional link between evergreen trees and the birth of Christ, and see no reason for him to try to cultivate one, unless he decided to take up residence in a culture in which such associations are embedded.

Traditions are powerful catalysts. As I mentioned briefly in my post on The One Thing You Need to Know, rituals, symbols, and traditions can move us quickly into the right state of mind. (Or the wrong state of mind, depending on the association.) They rank high in both efficacy and efficiency. In addition, the loss of them can have negative consequences -- moving to Florida from New York made it more difficult for me to get into the right mood for several holidays, not just Christmas, because the weather wasn't "right."

Christmas trees, decorating cookies, banket for breakfast, wrapping gifts, listening to Mannheim Steamroller, hanging our stockings, incense, bells, Lessons and Carols...none of these are essential to celebrating Christmas. But they can be helpful, and I see nothing wrong with them, unless for a particular person they have negative associations that hinder the celebration.

Thanks, Sarah W. Janet's blog attracts the most interesting comments!

Jimmy, your comment makes me think of the package my sister recently sent to Janet. She was asking me what Janet might like, and I suggested that she would most appreciate some of the things that are traditional in our family and would help her "be home" in a metaphorical way. For example, one of our Christmas treats is Toblerone, and my sister always gives it to us in one form or another -- if not more than one. But she couldn't quite bring herself to send Toblerone to Switzerland.

Well it seems I'm a bit late to get in on this conversation. My vacation is turning out to be as busy as the school year. Sarah, thanks for your concern, and Stephan thanks for your answer, though I suppose I should find something to disagree with so you don't feel overwhelmed by agreement. ;) And said Aunt did include a few Toblerone in said sweet care package of American treats.

Thanks for listening to us!

Cool! I don't know if that's an automatically generated comment or not, but I'm still thrilled Mannheim Steamroller commented. I grew up on their Christmas CDs and I love them!

Confession: Mannheim Steamroller isn't Mannheim Steamroller, but my attempt at being funny. :-(

Thank you for confessing. I, too, had been thrilled, even though I thought it would be at best an automated response to some robot's discovery of the reference, and was a little suspicious even of that because I would have expected a link to be included. After all, it is possible -- I've had a real response from an author before, and I think Jon has, too.

Congratulations, Janet! This post has generated so many comments that they have overflowed onto a second page. Since even your humble webmaster had some trouble realizing what had happened to my last comment, I'm attempting to stick this comment in out of order to direct people's attention to the bar at the top of the comments section (just below the post itself), where you will see a "Next" link to get you to the second page.