Have you put up your Christmas decorations yet? We are busy at the
church doing the same, only……much of what we are doing at the
church is putting up our Advent decorations. Advent is the church
season during which we prepare for Christmas. So, you’ll see a lot of
purple instead of red and green. We use purple in advent because
purple is the color of royalty and, in the church season of Advent, we
are preparing for the arrival of our king,…..baby Jesus!
We also decorate with cedar branches, red-berried holly, poinsettias, an
advent wreath, candles, and a Chrismon Tree. No, that is not a typo. A
Chrismon Tree is a pine tree decorated with white and gold colored
“Christ monograms,” known as Chris-mons. Instead of the ornaments
you usually see on a Christmas Tree, our church tree is covered with
symbols of Jesus who is coming to be our King. Chrismons are white and
gold because those are the assigned colors for the church season of
Christmas, not red and green!
Do you know why we hang wreaths and decorate with red-berried
holly, pine trees, and poinsettias in our Sanctuary? All of these and
more are symbols used to tell the story of Christ in Christian tradition.
To learn more about these symbols, come and join us for a “Hanging of
the Greens” worship service on Sunday, December 3 at 11 am or visit us
online on Facebook or YouTube. There you will hear the meaning
behind these traditional Christian symbols of the season. You’ll also
learn how the 4th century Christian Bishop of Myra (Turkey) led to our
tradition of receiving gifts from Santa Claus. May your Advent, then
Christmas season, be filled with the symbols of Jesus’ coming! – Barb
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