- Decorations: lots of houses with lots of lights.
- Christmas trees everywhere. Some of our friends go nuts with trees in every room or tons of outdoor trees and decorations. They even have cool themes for lots of the trees.
- Celebrating Advent for the four weeks leading up to Christmas
- Christmas music playing in stores (starting earlier and earlier)
- Over-consumption and materialism
- Christmas plays/musicals
- Christmas Eve services at church - with candle lighting, singing Silent Night
- Christmas music at church (of course, with the debate over "should we sing Christmas carols during Advent").
- Christmas caroling.
- Last minute shopping.
Some of these are good and some are bad, but they are cultural expectations.
Another one is that we American churches start planning WAY early for Christmas. One reason is because there are many people who will come to church for a Christmas Eve service that might not come any other time of year. We start making Christmas announcements in November, as Advent will start right after Thanksgiving.
This isn't what we experienced here.
Here are some things that were the same:
- Stores had lots of Christmas decorations and played Christmas music (it was funny to hear "Let it Snow" and even funnier (or maybe sad) to hear "Do They Know it's Christmas" - yes, Africans definitely know it's Christmas, and it doesn't have to snow for Christmas to be special).
- There were tons of toys on sale where they hadn't had many in the stores leading up to Christmas.
- The last minute thing... the week of Christmas, traffic was insane. I mean, completely nuts. It took us twice as long to get across town as it usually did. And it was explained to us that everyone shops last-minute. It's a cultural thing; people don't plan ahead. If something is going on, you'll hear about it... now!
Which leads me to some differences.
- I asked someone (the District Superintendent) what the church does for Christmas. On the Friday, less than a week before Christmas Day). He told me "Christmas Revival" - and, oh, by the way, can you preach on Sunday and Monday? Sure, no problem. When and where is it? Oh, they'll figure that out on Sunday morning.
- Christmas Revival was different. We had services every afternoon leading up to Christmas. Sunday through Wednesday (and the speaker didn't show up for any of the services, so I preached at all of them). They were held in the home of a church member, and though they were set to start at 15:00, nothing started until 16, and people would keep showing up as the afternoon went on. It was really wonderful to be in the home and to get to meet in such a close and intimate setting. That (in my opinion) is where true discipleship happens.
- Christmas Day Church Service. Well, I think it was different. We showed up on time, but the gates to the school (where the church meets) were locked. After waiting around for 1/2 hour or so, with a sick kid, we went home.
I missed the Christmas carols, so Tara and I brought instruments to the Wednesday "Revival" meeting and led the group in singing some of our favorites. They sang along as best as they could (one of them came up with an American Methodist Hymnal, which was helpful for her). They knew some of the songs, and some sang along in the vernacular.
I missed the outward focus that I've seen recently at Christmas, with a Christmas offering going to someone else (following Ginghamsburg's lead with the Christmas is not your Birthday idea, we've celebrated by giving a lot of money away) - here, the Christmas offering is supposed to be split between the pastor, the district superintendent, and the bishop... not sure how I feel about that.
But what I love is that here, Christmas doesn't just last one day and then it's done. People are still wishing each other "Happy Christmas" - and it's New Year's Day.
