Some Christmas thoughts
Dec. 22nd, 2007 03:23 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
matrilMiraculously, I have finished my Christmas shopping - I did some of it online, and the last of those orders came today; I was also able to get in some shopping on Monday and yesterday without overstraining myself or giving Ryan hypothermia by taking him out into the world. Whew! So I can settle back, enjoy the fact that my husband will be home for work for the next week and a half, and devote some thoughts to the actual point of Christmas.
We wanted to get a nativity set this year, since Emma is old enough now to have at least a vague idea about the Christmas story and the baby Jesus, helped along by the new baby we ourselves just brought into the home. Perhaps I am too picky, but it was so hard finding one that I felt was appropriate. Some are ridiculously expensive display pieces that cost over a hundred dollars and seem curiously materialistic for something celebrating the humble birth. More practically speaking, they're far too fragile for a house with two energetic children. But on the other end, the sets geared toward children tend to be rather cheesy, with buttons to play electronic Christmas carols or the like. Yech. We had just about given up when I stumbled across one on Monday at a drug store, for a mere 9.99. It's still not perfect (I really am too picky!) but it's tasteful, simple, and has certainly caught Emma's interest. Then the very next day my mother-in-law found an even cheaper one at another drug store - smaller than the first, but with separate pieces, which is really what I had been looking for, so that Emma could help to set up the scene. She really loves that one. My main fault with it is that it includes the three wise men, but not any shepherds.
Now, really. Why can't people just take the trouble of reading the actual story in Luke and Matthew? The shepherds are an important part of the nativity, sent to the stable by no less than an angel. It was these humble people who were among the first to visit the Son of God. The wise men, meanwhile, couldn't possibly have been at the stable. The star appeared when Jesus was born, so they would have started traveling then. By the time they came to visit, He could have been two years old. Ah well. It's just become tradition to include them in the scene. Funny also how there's always three of them, even though Matthew's account makes no mention of how many there were. Three gifts, yes, but not three wise men. Interesting gifts, by the way - gold, a gift for kings; incense, an offering for gods; and myrrh, which was used to prepare bodies for burials. Hmm.
One of the nativity sets includes an angel, but it is a very obviously female angel. How very odd that our modern conception of an angel is always a beautiful woman. Where did that come from? If ever the gender of an angel is referred to in the Bible, it is always male. And ugh, what screwed-up mindset turned angels into sensual creatures? It hurts my brain. Holy messengers from God? Nah, just hot vixens with wings. I may vomit.
Enough ranting, though. This year I bought myself a CD of medieval Christmas Carols. What a relief from the nonsense they play on the radio. Straightforward, religious rejoicing. And they sing every verse too, instead of just the first one. No one ever sings more than the first verse to Christmas carols nowadays, and it's a shame. Some of the best lyrics show up in later verses. I suppose they're usually more religious lyrics as well, so that may explain it.
Anyway, I am greatly looking forward to Christmas. Having children makes Christmas a whole new experience. I've hardly given a thought to what presents I might be getting, but I can't wait to see the kids open up what we got for them. And some wonderful anonymous person/group of people/Secret Santa gave us a great big pile of presents on our doorstep - apparently we're still identified as a needy family in our church congregation. I'm very grateful for their generosity, but I don't feel needy. I feel we have an abundance of everything I'd ever want. In fact, with Ryan's birth I've already gotten my favorite Christmas present. :)
We wanted to get a nativity set this year, since Emma is old enough now to have at least a vague idea about the Christmas story and the baby Jesus, helped along by the new baby we ourselves just brought into the home. Perhaps I am too picky, but it was so hard finding one that I felt was appropriate. Some are ridiculously expensive display pieces that cost over a hundred dollars and seem curiously materialistic for something celebrating the humble birth. More practically speaking, they're far too fragile for a house with two energetic children. But on the other end, the sets geared toward children tend to be rather cheesy, with buttons to play electronic Christmas carols or the like. Yech. We had just about given up when I stumbled across one on Monday at a drug store, for a mere 9.99. It's still not perfect (I really am too picky!) but it's tasteful, simple, and has certainly caught Emma's interest. Then the very next day my mother-in-law found an even cheaper one at another drug store - smaller than the first, but with separate pieces, which is really what I had been looking for, so that Emma could help to set up the scene. She really loves that one. My main fault with it is that it includes the three wise men, but not any shepherds.
Now, really. Why can't people just take the trouble of reading the actual story in Luke and Matthew? The shepherds are an important part of the nativity, sent to the stable by no less than an angel. It was these humble people who were among the first to visit the Son of God. The wise men, meanwhile, couldn't possibly have been at the stable. The star appeared when Jesus was born, so they would have started traveling then. By the time they came to visit, He could have been two years old. Ah well. It's just become tradition to include them in the scene. Funny also how there's always three of them, even though Matthew's account makes no mention of how many there were. Three gifts, yes, but not three wise men. Interesting gifts, by the way - gold, a gift for kings; incense, an offering for gods; and myrrh, which was used to prepare bodies for burials. Hmm.
One of the nativity sets includes an angel, but it is a very obviously female angel. How very odd that our modern conception of an angel is always a beautiful woman. Where did that come from? If ever the gender of an angel is referred to in the Bible, it is always male. And ugh, what screwed-up mindset turned angels into sensual creatures? It hurts my brain. Holy messengers from God? Nah, just hot vixens with wings. I may vomit.
Enough ranting, though. This year I bought myself a CD of medieval Christmas Carols. What a relief from the nonsense they play on the radio. Straightforward, religious rejoicing. And they sing every verse too, instead of just the first one. No one ever sings more than the first verse to Christmas carols nowadays, and it's a shame. Some of the best lyrics show up in later verses. I suppose they're usually more religious lyrics as well, so that may explain it.
Anyway, I am greatly looking forward to Christmas. Having children makes Christmas a whole new experience. I've hardly given a thought to what presents I might be getting, but I can't wait to see the kids open up what we got for them. And some wonderful anonymous person/group of people/Secret Santa gave us a great big pile of presents on our doorstep - apparently we're still identified as a needy family in our church congregation. I'm very grateful for their generosity, but I don't feel needy. I feel we have an abundance of everything I'd ever want. In fact, with Ryan's birth I've already gotten my favorite Christmas present. :)
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no subject
Date: 2007-12-25 07:20 am (UTC)That's really odd about the creche not having even one shepherd. True, kings/magi are probably prettier dressed, but you'd think the very presence of sheep and oxen and so forth would remind people that hey, shepherds! The star of the wise men is an interesting subject in itself - have you heard the theory that what they were actually seeing were some significant planetary conjunctions in Leo and Virgo? But yes, it would it taken them loooong after Jesus' birth to actually get there.
Vixen angels must have been a sore spot for sixty years at least, judging by Dorothy Sayers notes for her radio play on the Nativity: "A MALE angel, please!!!!" And I like Madeleine L'Engle's pointing out that when their usual greeting is "Be not afraid" it's pretty certain that their appearance isn't convention, much less conventional-sexy. Personally, I like the description in the Byzantine liturgy: "Cherubim and Seraphim, six-winged and many-eyed, borne aloft on their wings ..." though we'll probably never see an angel with six wings and ten or so eyes on a Nativity set :).
no subject
Date: 2007-12-26 01:33 am (UTC)Heh. I'd like to see a depiciton of an angel fitting that description. It would certainly be a refreshing change, if nothing else. ;)