I taught a class yesterday. During the introductions at the beginning of the class one of the students reported that she as feeling a bit stressed because she had the class, which took all morning and she still had to get her home fully decorated for Christmas because family members were arriving to celebrate Thanksgiving today. I didn’t ask why Christmas decorations were expected for Thanksgiving. This particular woman is well-educated. She has a masters in education. She was taking the course in a certification program and excelling in here studies. She knows the names of all of the holidays of the year. I have to assume that for her, decorating her home for Christmas is something that she expects to have done before Thanksgiving. I hope that she leaves those decorations up until Christmas day, but I suspect that they will be down and stored before New Year’s even though the season of Christmas in the church continues until January 6. At least, I thought, she has some sense of Advent - a season of preparation for Christmas.

Today is the day we call “Reign of Christ.” It is the last day of the ecclesiastical year. Next Sunday is the First Sunday of Advent and, in Christian Tradition, the first Sunday of the new year. Our lectionaries begin a new cycle of readings. Advent is an important season in the church and it has its own colors - purple or blue.

I’m guessing that the student who, by now, has completed the decoration of her home for Christmas, wasn’t using purple or blue, but rather red and green with white accents.

One of the big box stores where we buy a few supplies for the farm and lumber and other items for home repair and improvement projects has a sign in the parking lot that says, “You’ve had a rough year. Go ahead and buy the tree today.” The advertisement might work, because people can remember last year when Christmas Trees were in short supply. Pandemic related problems with the supply chain made several items, including artificial Christmas trees fail to be delivered on time. We purchase a live tree each year and plant it on the farm after we have had it in our home for Christmas. We didn’t have any trouble finding a suitable sized Douglas Fir tree, but it was expensive. On the other hand, the tree is thriving and it makes me happy to see it each time I visit the farm.

At the end of our street, where we can turn right to go to the beach, or left to go into town, there is a house that had an enormous spider web for Halloween. Unlike several other houses on the street, they didn’t take down their Halloween decoration. It had taken some effort to string the web that stretched from the top of their flagpole to the ground below. I noticed last week that they had removed the large artificial spider from the web. I also noticed that the rest of their Halloween decorations had been removed. Only the web remained. Last night, returning from the farm after dark, I realized why they had left the web. I turned the corner onto our street and there beside the house was a giant Christmas tree with strings of lights roughly following the pattern of the spider web. Now there are some people who think ahead. One set of decorating work serving for two seasons. My only question is about the original intended use of the flagpole. Since their Halloween decorations went up on October 1, and I suspect that their Christmas decorations will remain until New Years Day, That’s three months or a quarter of the year when their flagpole isn’t available for flying a flag. I guess they don’t feel a need to fly the flag for Veteran’s Day.

I guess I prefer to have my holidays be of shorter duration with space between them. That way there is a distinction between the holiday and the regular days between. I know that there are problems with the ways we have celebrated Thanksgiving in the past, without acknowledgement of the true history of the invasion of North America and the displacement of indigenous people, but the concept of a holiday devoted to giving thanks is still valuable in my way of thinking. Reflecting on gratitude is an important spiritual practice in my life and having a holiday when families can gather and give thanks together is a meaningful celebration for me. I have no desire to go straight from Halloween to Christmas.

I was delighted to read that several major retailers are remaining closed on Thursday for Thanksgiving, giving their employees a day off to celebrate with their families. Major chains including Lowes, Costco, Walmart, Ace Hardware, Barns & Noble, JC Penny, Sam’s Club, Target and Home Depot have joined what seems to be a growing trend. Places where I shop such as Tractor Supply, REI Coop, Office Depot, and Northern Tool + Equipment have joined in. I celebrate their acknowledgment of the holiday. The reality, I suppose, is that they are all shifting to increasing online sales and they have employed a certain amount of math to determine how to continue extract maximum profit from “black Friday.” I suppose that the shortage of workers in this post-pandemic time also contributes to their decision, but for now it seems to me to be a hopeful trend when retail stores acknowledge that their employees need time off to celebrate with their families.

As for my family, we’ll pause and take a deep breath and celebrate the reign of Christ by worshipping with our church family. On Monday we’ll make a list and make a grocery store run to pick up whatever additional supplies we need to have a celebration Dinner on Thursday. I used to look forward fo Thanksgiving as the only 3 day weekend in the life of a pastor, but things have changed. Pastors these days have comp days and floating holidays and 5 day work weeks with lots of options for 3 days off in a row. And I am semi-retired, which means that most weeks i only go to the church office 3 days of the week. I teach a few classes and attend a few meetings online and I respond to email and phone calls, but it isn’t the same kind of pressure that I experienced when I was working full time. I can’t say that I need a three day weekend. I do, however, need to set aside time to express my gratitude for the goodness of this life.

Despite the lack of decorations, this week seems to be a good time to give thanks.