Singing Carols in Advent?


It's Advent, that season of preparation, to welcome the Christ child. But there's lots of pressure to jump start Christmas. Part of the problem is that once Thanksgiving hits, it's Christmas 24/7. So, why wait at church?

There are, of course, many wonderful Advent hymns and songs -- O Come, O Come Emmanuel, Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silence, Com, O Long-Expected Jesus, Blessed Be the God of Israel (by Michael Perry, tune is Hal Hopson's Merle's Tune) -- but people want the carols, and they want them now.

I grew up Episcopalian, so we didn't do Christmas until Christmas Eve. For many older Free Church Protestants, those who came of age before the dawn of Liturgical Renewal in the 1960s, Christmas Carols were standard fare throughout December. They don't seem to understand why we wait. Suggesting that waiting is an opportunity to resist the creeping commercialism of Christmas doesn't work. Talking about the liturgical year doesn't either.

So, I've made my concession. I'm using the final hymn to do Christmas. One parishioner who was clamoring for more Christmas songs responded to my suggestion that we would have at least one each week -- "Oh, how generous."

So, what do we do? Is this something we should stand our ground on? Does it really matter? For my part, as I plan worship, I try to keep the service as thematically tight as possible. Therefore, I try to utilize music that fits with the sermon. If I'm preaching Advent texts then using Christmas carols doesn't really fit. Ah, the fun of being a pastor!

Comments

roy said…
I've struggled with that here too Bob... and ended up with a compromise similar to yours. We'll begin with one carol in a week or so... and probably have 2 for the final Sunday of Advent.

For me, Advent is one of the most important seasons of the year... so I do continue to fight the battle.
Country Parson said…
Being retired I'm in a great position to commend or criticize almost any practice, a little like one of those political commentators who don't actually have to make the hard decisions. So I inserted myself in the conversation on another blog in which the participants were assuring each other that they should return Advent to a serious season of penitence. I liked their theology, but from a practical point of view it didn't make much sense, as you have clearly pointed out. But I do think that Advent, as complex and self-contradictory as it is, can be a terrific opportunity for gentle self-examination about what it means to be a follower of Christ and to have accountability before God for our stewardship and discipleship.
Bob, I'll tell you what we are doing. The lectionary was built for traditions with Christmas Eve and Christmas day services, in a time when you could probably walk down the street to attend. Why not pop into the church on Christmas day and then be back home in an hour or so?

This is not our world. We have a young church. Many will travel for Christmas. We will have a Christmas Eve service, but only about a fourth of the congregation will be there. We will not have a Christmas day service at all.

So If I don't get to the birth of Jesus in Advent, we have people who will never experience that in worship.

So we just dropped the little apocalypse from the schedule and skipped ahead one week. On the fourth Sunday of Advent, we'll read the birth story and sing Christmas hymns. We will not sing any of them for the first 3 Sundays. The Christmas Eve service is really more of the same. Some other part of the birth story perhaps will be emphasized. We light the Christ Candle on Christmas Eve.

I think it's a nice compromise.
Theresa Coleman said…
I've bent to the pressure. I have preached about Advent -- and we sing at the beginning of the Advent service and "Advent" hymn -- and end the service with a "Christmas" hymn. And I will continue to use the "Christmas" hymns way later than my congregation thinks I ought to (Jan 6).

However, I am using Advent Hymns as a personal spiritual prayer discipline, and am blogging one a day until Christmas.

My congregation may wish to rush the season, but that doesn't mean I have to.
Anonymous said…
With a church that is Sunday morning only, how can we best connect the waiting of Advent with the music of the season? What do we tell the younger adults with no history about how the church intersects the world? Toward that end, I've turned this upside down; charting all the Advent and Christmas carols/hymns in our hymnal with a high degree of singability and make sure we sing them all across these 4 Sundays. We begin each service with the Advent wreath and this image guages our progress through the season, but these folk are sharp enough to understand the waiting AND can sing a Christmas carol and know they have not violated that waiting period.
Gene said…
The church I used to belong to doesn't sing Christmas carols during the Advent season, but they have no problem putting up the nativity scene and Christmas tree and all of the other decorations/symbols of Christmas.

If churches are going to stick to their guns about Advent, then it has to be about more the four weeks when the church looks like Christmas, feels like Christmas, but doesn't sound like Christmas. Advent seems very Midwestern and Lutheran to me; you can experience the joy of Christmas, but only after you've earned it. And we'll constantly remind you of what you're missing and how you're earning it. It'll be much better that way.

Christmas carols stir a lot of wonderful emotions in church members, and a lot of pastors are pretty insensitive to that. If you're going to remove something that gives people meaning, what are you going to replace it with? Somber, Lenten-style messages? Good luck with that.

I know some folks see the value in the liturgical calendar, and some things are worth waiting for, but do people in the clergy really believe that refusing to sing a song that reverberates at a deep emotional level helps to "resist the creeping commercialism of Christmas?" I have a hard time believing that people really think that. If you do, I'd like for you to explain how it works. Has there been a study on the subject? Any empirical evidence of that?

Considering that Christmas has become MORE commercial since the Liturgical Renewal (not less), I also have to ask how that's working out for you all.
Unknown said…
good question. We have a bit of conversation about this going on at my blog as well (you can even vote if you want.) I think you have to at least help people understand that you don't get to the answer of Jesus without first asking the question. That I think is what advent is really about.
Teri said…
I'm one of THOSE pastors--the "no, you can't sing Christmas carols in Advent, or Easter hymns (or alleluias) in Lent" type. Yes, we have a Christmas tree downstairs, with gifts for various organizations and alternative-giving opportunities under it. I bet many people have Christmas trees in Advent. That doesn't mean that they're opening the presents--they're WAITING.

I think this has to do with what we think Advent and Christmas are for and how we think of time. I wrote, sort of incoherently, on my blog about this today. The other pastor I am currently working with disagrees with me on this, and since she gets to plan worship 3 out of every 4 Sundays, we're singing a few verses here and there throughout Advent. I have to admit that it drives me crazy.

(sigh)...it's a losing battle, I know, but one I think is worth fighting.
Anonymous said…
I was raised "old school" Anglican (no carols until Christmas Eve), and I love the anticipatory tension of Advent. Nonetheless, Advent & Christmas celebrations today for us often revolve around school holiday schedules. Depending on the day of Christmas, and when the school division decides that the holidays begin, we sometimes have to hold the Sunday School pageant on the third Sunday of Advent, effectively reducing the season to two Sundays.
As for Christmas Eve, we will have a large congregation at two services, but at least half of them will be strangers.
Anonymous said…
I lead the high school Sunday School class. We're focusing on Advent stories, as I try to convey to kids who have grown up in an "I want it and I want it NOW" culture what might be gained by waiting. The adult class is also focusing on Advent. So you may imagine my surprise when our church service this week concluded with, of all things, "Joy to the World!" I was dumbfounded. The pastor is at the Christian Ed. meetings, and I thought we were all on the same page. Clearly, I was wrong. I am disappointed, and deflated. I feel like, "Well, why am I waiting, if it really doesn't matter? Why am I telling these kids to wait?"
Perhaps the pastor was trying one of the compromises suggested here -- I admit I haven't spoken with her about it yet, but there are indeed people in our church who clamour for carols as soon as the Thanksgiving turkey is cold -- and maybe if her choice had been, "It Came Upon the Midnight Clear" or "O Little Town of Bethlehem," I wouldn't feel quite so badly, but "Joy to the World!!" We might as well sing "Silent Night" while we light the Advent candles and just blow off the Christmas Eve service entirely. My kids will be happier to stay home and watch "Rudolph" anyway . . . .
Anonymous said…
I hope 'Anonymous' who posted her/his response at 3.18pm reads other comments on this topic. The idea that it sounds like 'Lutheran earn it' resonated with me and made me smile from my UCA reformed background.
Together in Song and other books I believe have 'Joy to the World as an Advent Hymn.
Aussie Ian
Anonymous said…
As a UM preacher I also struggle with Advent vs Christmas hymns. I have compromised. I know it is not orthodox and borders on heresy/blasphemy, but we have a "Christmas Hymn Sing" time during the service. As I told the congregation though, there is no free lunch. They also have to sing Advent hymns during the service. They love me and are willing to suffer for my happiness!
Rebecca in Georgia
David Clark said…
I've made a lot of people mad through the years by not allowing them to sing carols in Advent. I'm now a true convert to belting them out during Advent. Here's my brief blog that explains my journey. http://accdocpastor.blogspot.com/2012/12/the-scandal-of-singing-christmas-carols.html

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