Starting Substack with a new Christmas tradition (I hope)
Beginnings don’t have to be hard, especially when you’re sharing Christmas joy!
This year I started a new peculiar habit around the Christmas holidays, and it may even turn into a peculiar Christmas tradition for me. I’ve started sending many of my friends texts with links to seasonal songs. It’s just my way of trying to spread a little Christmas cheer.
I know people are busy this time of year, so I’m limiting myself to one, rarely two a day. Thanks to the magic of YouTube, there’s no shortage of material to be had, and since a text can wait until they have a minute or three, I hope the pleasure outweighs the annoyance. Thus far, nobody has demanded I stop, so I think it’s going fairly well.
As Christmas Day approaches, I’m in a bit of a quandary. I’m having such fun, and there’s so many good songs, I’d like to keep going at least through the New Year.
Yes, I admit it. I love Christmas, and Christmas music. Yes, I get funny looks when I’m listening to carols in August. No, I don’t much care. If that’s the only reason I’m getting funny looks, I’ll take that as a win.
Just as I started to get all angsty over the appropriateness of sending ‘Christmas’ music after December 25th, I had a burst of insight. Like the Grinch, my heart began to swell, and swell, and swell!
Fortunately, a couple of nitro tablets and a fluid pill took care of that!
Once the chest pain went away, I went back to my moment of insight. There are 12 Days of Christmas, aren’t they? Wouldn’t that be the perfect excuse slash reason to keep sending Christmas songs out and keep the holiday going just a bit longer?
A few minutes on the web refreshed my memory of the 12 Days of Christmas and how they came about. Being raised low church, I didn’t grow up making a big deal about Epiphany, but I know some people who do. It does make sense, though. A couple of millennia ago they couldn’t just make a social media post or have a breaking news alert for Jesus’ birth. A star and choir of angels scaring a bunch of shepherds into gibbering incontinence was the best they could do.
It would have taken time for the word to spread. Even with the advance notice they had, the Magi couldn’t just hop a flight at the last minute—assuming they could get past the TSA. Who knows how long the Wise Men had been studying prophecies and charting the heavens before they finally figured out it was THAT star they needed to follow?
At any rate, having a day that commemorates the arrival of the Magi several days after The Birth? Completely reasonable. The Magi showing up, bearing their gifts and proclaiming Jesus as the Messiah was the first public acknowledgment by people who mattered. It was a Big Deal. Sorry, shepherds.
It was like getting a blue check, back before Elon bought Twitter. It meant something, and that’s why people celebrate the 13th Day after Christmas as the Epiphany.
Was it exactly 13 days later? The Council of Tours seemed to think so in 567, but I personally have no idea. Quite frankly, I’m not too worried about the precise timing of the Magi’s arrival. 13 or 31 days later, I don’t much care. It happened. They came, they saw, they put their official seal of approval on the newborn King of the Jews. Was it on January 6th? Was Jesus even born on December 25th? Which calendar—Gregorian or Julian? And why am I having a flashback to a Monty Python scene, a question about African versus European swallows and a sorcerer named Tim?
Ultimately, the precise days don’t matter to me. The convention is that we celebrate Christmas on December 25th and the Epiphany on January 6th. Sometime in between, the shepherds showed up, probably bringing their family and friends along. Did the wives bring food? Diapers and other baby essentials? Did they grab a little boy with a drum and drag him with them? Did the little drummer boy wake up baby Jesus? (For his sake, I hope not!) Who else came to visit? Did the family get upgraded to a real room? Did Joseph have any trouble deducting his new baby from his taxes? Remember, that’s why they were in Bethlehem in the first place.
We only know the important things: the Birth, the Announcement, a few of the Witnesses, and the Magi’s appearance. Once you accept them, everything else is just trivia.
But thank you, Council of Tours! You’ve given me all the cover I need to keep sending out links to some truly beautiful music for another few days. I promise I won’t start next year until well after Thanksgiving, because that’s when Christmas ought to start—NOT late Halloween night!
I make no promises about random links sent in August. Deal with it.
Merry Christmas!