It’s almost Christmas.
At least, it’s almost Christmas if you are one of those strange people who think “Christmas” is the same thing as the feast of the Nativity of Our Lord Jesus Christ. However, thinking about this holy day in those terms requires negotiating a maze created by school calendars, travel, office parties, family traditions and, yes, worship services. And then there is the cultural steamroller called “The Holidays,” led by the powers that be in government, shopping malls and mass media.
I bring this up because of that New York Times story that ran a few days ago: “O Come All Ye Faithful, Except When Christmas Falls on a Sunday.” It’s a story well worth reading and we will get to it shortly.
However, if you follow the GetReligion podcast, you know that I’ve been expecting the hot social-media debates about the whole “Christmas on Sunday” kerfuffle to eventually bleed over into the mainstream press. Check out this “Crossroads” episode: “Is Christmas 'news'? Not really, unless it is a case of 'Christmas AND ...' “
Before that, I wrote an “On Religion” column hooked to a new study by Lifeway Research. Here’s that headline: “When is Christmas? That depends on the person asking.” If you dig into those numbers, you’ll see a bright red line running between two different brands of Protestantism — those with roots in traditions that include some form of liturgical calendar and those that do not, especially the rapidly growing world of nondenominational evangelical and charismatic/Pentecostal churches. He’s a key chunk of that column:
In churches with centuries of liturgical traditions, the Nativity of Our Lord Jesus Christ is Dec. 25, following the quiet season of Advent (Latin for "toward the coming"). This year, Christmas falls on Sunday and, for Catholics, Anglicans and others, the Christmas Eve Midnight Mass is one of the year's most popular rites. This opens a festive season that continues through Jan. 6, the Feast of the Epiphany. Many Eastern Orthodox Christians follow the ancient Julian calendar and celebrate Christmas on Jan. 7, after Nativity Lent.
In the United States, some kind of Christmas Eve service remains the big draw, according to almost half (48%) of Protestant pastors contacted in a new study by Lifeway Research. The frequency of high-attendance church events builds until Christmas Eve, then declines sharply.