Christmas Quiet

“Isn’t it wonderful to see all these kids grown up and reunited here tonight?” whispered my friend to me as we waited for the start of Midnight Mass. It was a special Mass with brass accompaniment to the choir, people singing just a little louder than normal, and post service greetings with added touches of warmth. My two children, both home for the holidays, sat on my left as we listened to my wife and her choir mates sing Christmas carols during the prelude.

I love Midnight Mass. For years I didn’t because of the trouble of dragging along two exhausted little kids whose main concern was Santa, but now with that parental phase past us, I enjoy the quiet of the church, the poinsettias, the bells, choir music, the small amount of fatigue at the end of a long day, and the opportunity to sit quietly and reflect.

My first quiet Christmas moment occurred two days prior as my wife and I were putting the finishing touches on our perfectly imperfect tree. Decorations didn’t go according to schedule this year due mainly to my absence in DC, so we found ourselves hauling an old tree out of the attic on December 23. The white lights ran out about a quarter of the way up and so we faced the decision of whether to attempt a run to the store or to just use what we had. The latter option won and so the white lights were followed by a section of red. How appropriate for Alabama. We had a Roll Tide Christmas tree! Except that there were more empty branches above the band of red. So we completed the lighting scheme with a couple of strands of multi-colored bulbs. Just as in old fashioned cooking, we used what we had, and while the tree would not have won any decorating award, it was perfect in its own unique way. Mrs. C had had it by then; she does virtually all the holiday prep work, and was at her wit’s end with presents still to wrap. So we sat down on the couch, watched the end of a movie that we had both seen part of, and held each other. The decoration boxes and unwrapped presents could wait till tomorrow. Both kids were out socializing so it was just the two of us holding each other with one eye on the movie and the other on our beautiful makeshift Christmas tree.


It is now early on Christmas morning and as I write this blog entry, snow is falling and sticking to the grass, rooftops, and my deck. The woods behind the house are covered in white and it looks like a postcard scene. Significant snow is rare in Alabama and I don’t remember a white Christmas in my 28 years here. The snow this morning is a reminder of the purity of the real reason for Christmas and the quiet time to enjoy it and reflect on the birth of our Savior, is a gift.

Merry Christmas everyone. I hope that all of you have the opportunity to find your quiet Christmas moments this season too.