Christmas jumping-the-gun

(Come back to this in October!)

I didn't know that one of the reasons the Church chose to mark the Nativity of the Lord around the pagan Solstice was to counteract and counter-witness it with Christian sobriety!

But what can we do when the parties around us are scheduled before December 24-25? Blow them off? Maybe partake of them lightly and selectively... and if anyone should ask, what a great time to talk about Orthodoxy!

(This also speaks to me about the witness-value of postponing it - as Protestants and most Catholics will see it - until 13 days later, as those on the Old Calendar do. But this is just one opinion!)