Have an Anabaptist Christmas!

[Signtist]

What does your Conservative Mennonite Christmas service look like? When does it take place? For those of you who came from different cultures, how does it differ from what you were used to?

[lesterb]

What does your Conservative Mennonite Christmas service look like? When does it take place? For those of you who came from different cultures, how does it differ from what you were used to?

This may seem strange but I haven't been to a Christmas day service for 16 years. For some reason conservative churches here in the west tend not to have them.

[Signtist]

Do you miss them, Lester? I haven't attended one in 7 years, but not for lack of opportunity.

I know the Americans don't want to discuss this until they've at least had their Thanksgiving meal!

[Josh]

We aren't in the west and we don't have a Christmas service either... we do have a Christmas music program, I haven't paid attention to know exactly when it will be.

Last year we had a Thanksgiving program (held on a normal Sunday morning) which all the youth put on.

[RZehr]

No Christmas church service here, never been to one.
On the evening of the last day of school prior to Christmas break, our school students puts on a little Christmas themed program of singing, recitation, and poems.

[Josh]

When I was at an MC USA church we had full blown liturgy with Advent readings, special Christmas Eve and Christmas services, etc.

Imagine my surprise to return to the Mennonite world but find out conservatives never did any of that. Interestingly that particular congregation now does Christmas in a more evangelical and less liturgical fashion.

[lesterb]

Do you miss them, Lester? I haven't attended one in 7 years, but not for lack of opportunity.

I know the Americans don't want to discuss this until they've at least had their Thanksgiving meal!

I was actually glad. Christmas is a nice family day. But it did feel funny not to have church.

[Signtist]

In our area it seems everyone has a Christmas service. I was accustomed to having a church service on Christmas morning. When we married, my wife made it quite clear that to her Christmas day was a day to spend with family. A day spent making positive memories with our children, something Christmas in her childhood was lacking. And as we discussed it, I came to realize that for her, this issue rates ten points out of ten. It is truly serious to her. She's made an awful lot of changes to accommodate my culture, this point isn't that critical to me. Any inclination to push back is just because of the comments people make about "the children missing out on the program" or being worried about what people think. (I'm gradually learning most don't!) So we don't go to church on Christmas morning. Maybe one day our church will do a Christmas eve service. Singing some Christmas songs and hearing the Christmas story in a candle lit service could be a good compromise!

[temporal1]

Always an interesting topic.
O Holy Night / Calvary Mennonite