The Christmas Season Arrives

I have created a new verb: Christmify. Simply it means the act of transforming something from its native state into a Christmas decorated or ready state. Usage: The house was Christmified yesterday. There is an adjective: Christmassy listed in dictionary.com, but not the verb: Christmify.

Christmas Tree 2010

And so after dragging seven more containers laden with Christmas decorations out of the attic and purchasing a new artificial tree--the process of Christmifying the house begins. Christmifying the house is an annual event and it comes with expectation, stress, tears, wine and lots of merriment.  The stress is related to the annual event of discovering where Bob hid Chris's first Christmas ornament in the boxes for safe keeping and being sure it had not survived to celebrate another Christmas--right up until it is found and hung on the tree accompanied by the memory of over five decades of Christmases past.

Seriously though, Christmifying is a process--the initial Christmas decorations were emplaced on Veteran's Day with the exterior decorations being put up--since it was warm. Then there was Snow Village Saturday, and there was last evening--when most of the rest of the house was decorated. There are dishes to swap out and decorations to place. The process of Christmifying the house is completed over time--it is truly a transformation--of both the house and our minds. This year we will again have two Christmas trees to celebrate the season and only one is yet erected--the second is a project for some night this week.

The process of Christmifying is similar to what we must go through to transform our minds and get ready for the season of Christmas. We cannot just flip a switch and be ready for Christmas. Preparation is involved--to prepare ourselves for the day. Some churches celebrate the season of Advent to prepare for the Christmas Day celebration--and this parallels the transformation of our minds that happens during the ramp up to Christmas Day. In olden times (one of my favorite phrases) Christmas was celebrated for 12 days--from Christmas Day until January 6th--Epiphany or Three Kings Day. So the preparation of nearly a month resulted in a festival of twelve days.  Sadly, we have lost much of the festive season and reduced Christmas to a day. That, it seems, is all of the time we can give to celebrate the birth of The King.

And so the house is nearly fully transformed into the Christmas spirit--and now begins the process of transforming my mind and heart to accept the joy of the season and not focus on the 27 degrees of cold it is currently holding at outside.

Merry Christmas and may you be fully Christmified in all you do this season.