Last year, I didn’t put up my Christmas lights until just days before the holiday. It made me a little sad, you know? Christmas came and went, and it felt like I never hardly saw it coming until it was gone. So it rang a little hollow.

Now it bears noting that I’m Russian Orthodox. My church celebrates liturgical events according to the Old Calendar, the Julian calendar. Our December 25 is January 6 on the modern calendar. The point being that I get to leave my lights up longer than you might, and not feel like a slob. And I get to have Christmas with family and again in Church, which is cool. But I digress.

This year I decided to start working on my Christmas spirit a little sooner, and put up my lights the night after Thanksgiving. I love Christmas, always have. This year will be a little bittersweet, without my grandparents and my best fuzzy friend. but I have my family and memories, and the story. Shepards abiding in the fields, keeping watch o’er their flocks, the angels, the manager, the newborn king.

And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night.

And, lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them: and they were sore afraid.

And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people.

For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord.

And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger.

And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying, Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men. [Luke 2]

So tonight I stopped at Rite Aid on the way home and bought a set of Christmas lights, and strung them on the balcony. I’m going to try to get in the Christmas spirit earlier this year; perhaps earlier than I ever have. And I’m not going to let any forces close to me, if it can be avoided, wash the Christianity out of Christmas. It is not a secular holiday, it’s not for each his own personal relativism. It’s Christmas: the birth into the world of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, and atheists, agnostics and the sect of the sugar plum teddybear deity should stop trying to show us Christians how we ought to observe it.

I’m not just talking about Santa Claus and commercialism. The mad dash for the X-Box. I’m talking about a trend to purge the holiday of its religious significance, to wrench it from the hands and hearts of Christians, because Jesus isn’t what some people want. They want reindeer and mistletoe, and just as soon we’d keep our Lord to ourselves.

My goodness, can you imagine the uproar of indignation and moral outrage if people started trying to tell Jews how to observe Yom Kippur or Rosh Hashanah? Let alone if we tried to co-opt Ramadan to be a cool way for everybody to lose weight. Blood in the streets … well, things might even get worse. Those things are sacred to people, and people who don’t observe keep their mitts off, as it should be. And so it should be with Christmas. Join us, celebrate, have a Merry Christmas. But if you don’t believe in Jesus, don’t act like He makes you uncomfortable and I shouldn’t mention Him. Christmas is all about Christ.

Thank you for your support. Here’s a funky little shot of my lights.

Or, if you’ve had a little too much eggnog: