Christmas Reimagined for 2020

Back in April, I naively thought certainly by Christmas we would be gathering in person to celebrate Jesus's birth. I even thought by the summer we would have a make-up Easter service with all of the pomp and circumstance of the traditional celebration (2012) that takes place on Easter morning. 

Long before Thanksgiving we knew that was not to be. That is when I blogged what Christmas 2020 might look like.

I wanted to write an update.

We did get a live tree. We even managed to get the tree from our usual tree farm, even though this year they culled their trees and had very few of the right size. Next year there will be even less. Even though they are only a mile from our house, and normally we walk or ride our bike to his farm, we drove anticipating we would have to go to a different farm to actually find a tree. We got lucky and took the first tree we saw.

As always, the tree magically grew between the farm and home.

We put many less ornaments on the tree this year, partially because we were not entertaining and because of the kitten. I failed to appreciate Glinda Dragon would be the one to climb the tree the most.

Mike and Debbi's annual holiday party was canceled. Instead he decorated his front yard and encouraged people to drive through their horseshoe driveway to admire their light show, and drop off donations for the local food pantry.

In an effort to find some holiday cheer, we joined Six Flags and both drove through the park and walked through the park.

Church services are always an important part of the Christmas Season (as well as throughout the year). We wondered how we would be able to feel the magic of the season.

Over the years we have started the Christmas season with Princeton Theological Seminary's "Carols of Many Nations" service. When I visited PTS's website around Thanksgiving, and there was no mention of that service, I was disappointed. A few weeks later I learned they were making a virtual service to debut on Friday, December 18. They combined live footage with videos of alumni reading scriptures from around the world with footage from past years (mostly 2019). They managed to keep the spirit of the service and spread it to everyone interested.

From 2019

Passing the flame of candlelight virtually

We also attended Muhlenberg's candlelight service, something we hope we can do before Ashley graduates in 2024. We watched it with Ashley, who pointed out her friends.

On Christmas Eve we attended our first drive in worship service. At the end the pastor let us leave our cars to hold plastic candles (the intention had been to have a traditional candle lighting ceremony, but it was too windy to keep the flames lit). We hung out for a few minutes afterwards keeping our distance, but marveling how nice it was to see real faces again. 

Because the midnight service we usually attend decided to only have a shared 5 pm and 8 pm virtual service, we decided to "attend" the American Church in Paris' candlelight service many hours later. I've been attending their services weekly. I enjoyed "introducing" Don and Ashley to the various pastors and musicians. Their church is oddly feeling like home.

Christmas Day we did drive into New York City to see The Tree and the windows. The City feels eerily quiet. No hustle, bustle. No crowds.

As we drove home we played family Kahoot on zoom with Grammy, Papa John, Rebecca, Melissa, and families. I wish we had timed the day better to be home (picture from Melissa's Facebook page).

We stopped by to wish my parents a Merry Christmas. In lieu of the traditional family dinner each family unit visited one at a time and exchanged presents. My parents sent us each home with the makings of Christmas dinner.

We then ate our dinner at home, just the three of us.

We tried to participate in the annual lighting of the luminaries in our neighborhood, but failed. First off all the rain made it impossible to do on Christmas Eve, so we all agreed to wait until Christmas night. The day escaped from us. By the time we came home the nice day had turned bitterly cold and windy. I stubbornly set them up, but could not get them to light. Just felt like a metaphor for 2020.

Patriot's Week turned into Patriot's Day (December 26th). The annual Colonial Ball morphed into a talk by Sue Dupre on the history of balls in America. She included facts she always wanted to include during the ball (but did not have time) and showed videos of us dancing at the ball. Larry Kidder gave a different talk about the Battle of Princeton, and someone else gave a talk about blacks in the military. I learned more blacks fought for the British because they promised them freedom from slavery than fought for the Americans who made no such promise. Makes sense!

New Year's Eve ended the holiday season with a fire pit in our backyard instead of the traditional town bonfire. Not quite the same, but we hope now that we have the fire pit we will enjoy friends over to enjoy outdoor socially distant fun. I miss seeing people in person.

In some ways I loved not having to hustle around, especially when we had an early snow, but I as with much of this year, I missed seeing people and having the shared experiences. 

Friends have started to receive the vaccine. I look forward to receiving mine.

Happy New Year!