Can’t Hardly Wait for Christmas

On an academic level I know that the first two thirds of the Advent season is a time of preparation for the Last Coming of Christ and a meditation of our mortality in preparation for our physical Death. I am likewise aware that I probably need more penance and spiritual renewal than most. 

When I took a course on the Liturgical Year with the great Robert Taft, SJ many years ago he gave an example of a classic misunderstanding the theology of liturgy in the in the very course description pointing out that  “an extraterrestrial student of our cultural history parachuting into the USA in order to study the meaning of Advent today would be forced, without the help of history, to conclude that its meaning is to be located in Christmas shopping.”

I can even agree on a conceptual level with my friend D. Vincent Twomey who caused a furore in the Irish media landscape when he stated that “singing Christmas hymns before Christmas . . . is absurd” and proposed that Irish radio should not broadcast any Christmas carols before December 17. Yet Christmas carols are probably my favorite musical genre. One of my guilty pleasures is not skipping the track on my playlist when I am driving by myself during the summer and a Christmas carol appears on my My-Top-Rated playlist.

Yet when I come across news stories such as The 2024 Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree begins its journey to New York City, I feel an urge to start putting out my own decorations. I was on vacation visiting friends in Miami last week and I made sure to pre-order a few pounds of Christmas M&Ms on Amazon and bring them back to put in a big bowl in my mother’s house for the benefit of my nephews and nieces. And being the unreformed shopaholic that I am, I had to pay for an extra bag on my flight back to Dublin to contain all of the Christmas clutter that I had purchased. 

To sum up, I can’t see a commemoration and celebration of the Incarnation and the Birth of Christ being bad, even in early November.  But liturgically this flies in the face of over a millennium of Christian tradition. Yet I know that I am far from alone in this quandary and I imagine that almost all of our readers engage in some aspect of Christmas shopping or festivities before December 17.  

I wonder if any of our readers have any suggestions or additional insight for this situation, in particular given that Pray Tell now happily allows for reader comments again? 

Fr. Neil Xavier O'Donoghue

Neil Xavier O’Donoghue is originally from Cork, Ireland. He is a presbyter of the Archdiocese of Newark, NJ who has ministered in parishes on both sides of the Atlantic. He has spent many years as an academic mentor to seminarians. Neil currently serves as Programme Director for Liturgical Programmes at the Pontifical University and as Acting Director of the National Centre for Liturgy. Since 2020 he has also served as the Executive Secretary for Liturgy to the Irish Catholic Bishops Conference. He has studied at Seton Hall University (BA, MDiv), the University of Notre Dame (MA), and St Vladimir’s Orthodox Theological Seminary (MTh). He holds a Doctorate in Theology (Ph.D.) from St Patrick’s College, Maynooth and is in the process of completing a second doctorate (D.D) in the Pontifical Facultad de Teología Redemptoris Mater in Callao, Peru. Neil has published a translation of the Confessio of St. Patrick: St. Patrick: His Confession and Other Works (Totowa, NJ, 2009), as well editing the third edition of Fredrick Edward Warren’s The Liturgy and Ritual of the Celtic Church (Piscataway, NJ, 2010). In 2011 the University of Notre Dame Press published The Eucharist in Pre-Norman Ireland an adaptation of his doctoral thesis and in 2017 the Alcuin Club published his Liturgical Orientation: The Position of the President at the Eucharist. His articles have appeared in The Irish Theological Quarterly, New Blackfriars, The Furrow and Antiphon. He writes a monthly article on some aspect of the theology of Pope Francis in the Messenger of St. Anthony and blogs regularly at PrayTell.

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Comments

3 responses to “Can’t Hardly Wait for Christmas”

  1. Emmanuel Ibitoye

    This brilliant piece sums up my feelings at this time of the year as I am also filled with mixed emotions regarding the Christmas lights which magically surface after Halloween and the Songs on the radio. Although, I must confess that as a student seeing the Christmas lights light us the streets feel me with nostalgia, but I also know that I cannot relax, because I have so much to read and write before Christmas. Even when Christmas does arrive, I have to micromanage my time to ensure I get my readings done. The Liturgy student in me would agree with your friend D. Vincent Twomey about not wanting to listen to, or see anything Christmasy until the last week of Advent. But, like you the child in me “Can’t hardly wait for Christmas” because it is such a beautiful time to celebrate and remember the birth of Christ, spend time with family, and if possible, sing the carols with reckless abandon.

    Reply
    1. Cesar F Cabrera

      Father, Maybe you can clarify this, I read that the Advent liturgy has been recently reformed or formalized during VA2. Is this true? If so, that would explain why many people are unaware of when Advent starts, the 1st and 2nd part of Advent, etc … As with many things reformed during or around the time of VA2 are still not being taught to the world wide Church.

      Reply
      1. Fr. Neil Xavier O'Donoghue Avatar
        Fr. Neil Xavier O'Donoghue

        Cesar

        Yes Advent has been reformed in the wake of Vatican II. For more details maybe consult this book: https://litpress.org/Products/6241/Advent-to-Pentecost or this one: https://litpress.org/Products/3569/The-Liturgical-Year-Volume-1. However, I don’t think the changes were this radical, nor would it be proper to lay the current tendency to celebrate Christmas earlier and earlier on that reform. It is a matter of catechesis and encouraging all Christians (myself more than anyone) to live the Church’s liturgical year in an authentic and meaningful way that bears witness of the hope of Christian Faith to those who do not yet believe or have given up on the Faith.

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