I'm getting to see some of the quirky christian customs leading up to Christmas from a closer vista this year. Paul is eager to share his family traditions with me. I never realized how important the non-Jesus-centric parts of Christmas were to people's comfort. In our house growing up Hanukkah just....propelled itself forward. You took out the menohrah, polished it an used toothpicks to scrape any of the wax that you'd forgotten to get last year. As soon as someone started to say the first prayer it would all come back to you, although you hadn't remembered it 5 minutes before. You didn't anticipate so much as plan around those nights; homework, TV, Ritual, more TV, dinner, bedtime. I just always assumed it was similar for kids who celebrated Christmas, except for the far superior gift-recieval. |