Come and Join the Celebration

 The trouble with traditions is that time can change them and you are left feeling weirdly bereft.

Last night at the Christmas Eve church service there was a sense that things were changing. A new vicar. An older lady. Quiet. Understated. Some carols people didn’t know how to sing. How do you fit ‘Enough for him whom cherubim’ into that first line of In the Bleak Midwinter And who knew that the comma in God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen was there and it wasn’t a song asking God to look after the drunk men in your family? 

On the walk home we were discussing the changes we had seen with each vicar and how some are kept and others discarded. One vicar introduced a riotous version of the 12 days of Christmas at the end (which will cause a town uprising if it’s dropped) and another introduced real candles, which is the most beautiful symbology (spreading the light from one person to the next), although a huge health and safety nightmare. My daughter was upset that we don’t sing, “Come and join the celebration, it’s a very special day,” with its weird robotic scanning of words anymore.  The message is nice and clear, though. 

“Why do things have to change, though?” she said, wide-eyed and innocent. I like the traditions.

Many of my friends are struggling with that this year too. Our children are grown, have partners, live away. So, we have to make new traditions. I met someone on a dog walk who was telling me that they needed to make a spreadsheet of where all the children were and when just to keep track of it. 

It is the fallow period. CBGC. (Christmas before grandchildren). I remember that my parents hated it. They even tried going on holiday but they were just mourning the loss of the big family Christmas. People who say, “I don’t know what it is, I just don’t feel Christmassy this year,” are suffering from a change in their Christmas tradition.

Today, though. I’m going to remind myself that it is a celebration and there are many things to celebrate. Not least that there will be people who will come and join my celebration. 

Mince pie for breakfast anyone?

I seem to have made 48 for just 4 people!