Advent Calendar - December 20 - Religious Services

Did your family attend religious services during the Christmas season? What were the customs and traditions involved?

When I was growing up, we always had a special Christmas service at church. On occasion that even included a special Christmas Eve worship service.

Those services might include a children’s pageant, replete with Mary, Joseph, Wisemen, Shepherd’s [in bathrobe tunics, with towels upon their heads], and of course Angels. There were occasions when a live baby substituted for a doll in representing the baby Jesus. And of course, the precious singing of little children!

The church’s choir might also perform a special cantata or just a multitude of carols. The choir members, dressed in their elegant robes, reminded me of the angels in Heaven singing!

On occasion, a special communion sacrament would be held, but I think that was only once or twice on Christmas Eve, in honor of our troops in Vietnam. [Yes, I was a teenager during that tumultuous period in our history!]

Mostly, I recall the opportunity for the congregation of our Southern Baptist church to join in the singing. I used to love to sing, “Angels We Have Heard on High”, “Silent Night”, “Hark the Herald Angels Sing”, and so many others!

I’ve moved away from the religious services these days, having met God One on one in my heart, rather than in the church’s building. [Another whole story unto itself!] But I go back to those days of childhood bliss, and remember the simple blessings of the church during the Christmas season!