One thing that was very special at Christmas time in the States was going to church during the advent season. Our hearts were prepared for Christmas day the 4 weeks prior. We sang Christmas hymns for weeks. We went to a Christmas Eve service.
Those things didn't happen in the church we attended. I was very surprised that we didn't sing Christmas songs during December. We maybe sang one Christmas song the Sunday right before Christmas Day. They didn't do advent, nor did the pastor preach Christmas sermons except for the Sunday right before Christmas day. There was no Christmas Eve service. The church was decorated but that was pretty much the extent of it. I am sure there are other churches in CR that do advent and sing Christmas songs and preach Christmas sermons. But for some reason, our church didn't.
I take that back - there was one Christmas song they played during the offering each week during December: I'm dreaming of a White Christmas. Not joking!
I think this is the main reason it didn't feel quite like Christmas most of the time.
I'm glad I learned this lesson here in CR. I now know that when we move to our future ministry spot - I will bring more things with us to help it feel more like Christmas. We are also going to be more aware of doing advent at home. We haven't really ever focused on it at home because 1. the kids were little and 2. we had church and we relied on that. Now we see, that living in another country we need to be more careful to do these things at home.
We did have a good Christmas, this post wasn't to say that our Christmas was bad. Just as I reflect back, I see why it just didn't seem quite like Christmas.
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