Out of all the Christmas Eve services I have attended, 2012 ranks as the #1 Christmas Eve Service of all time. Think about that, as a preacher's kid I have been to A LOT of Christmas Eve services. The past couple of years I have gone to two Christmas Eve Services and last year was the best one of all time. So that's saying something!
I know I know, I am jumping the gun a little bit talking about Christmas Eve. I look forward to Christmas Eve like most kids look forward to Christmas morning. The shopping is complete (for the most part, except maybe that late run for a stocking stuffer). On Christmas afternoon you start to focus on the money you spent, on the take backs that need to be done, the mess that has been created and your exhausted.
However, Christmas Eve is great! Time with family, the feeling of joy and hope and the tradition of going to the Christmas Eve Service.
Let me note here that we need to remember the reason for the season; the birth of our Savior......all the stuff you probably already know. I am afraid this post is going to offend some, so I wanted to mention that. I also want to remind you God likes to laugh (I hope, or I'm in trouble). So don't be offended from this point on just enjoy the retelling of the best Christmas Eve Service Ever.
Okay here we go. This is exciting to tell. First, my parents went with us to our church service. It was a good service. The music was probably louder than my parents prefer, but it was a really good service and the Christmas spirit was running high.
A couple of hours later we went to my parent's church. Hands down their church won! Okay okay your right, this isn't a competition and I am missing the point on these services. That being said their church won- by a land slide!
Let me set the stage. Their church is traditional. Quieter. It feels more reverent. It has a choir and the choir wears choir robes. It has a very similar feel to the church I grew up in as a child. Already it has a slight edge because it feels like traditional Christmas Eve to me.
Kelly and I arrive with our kids and the sanctuary is pretty full. We sit in the pew behind my parents. See it's traditional, I said "pew" not folding chair. My brother's family has arrived around the same time. I have not been sitting down for a minute before my brother sits down in front of me. This already has "not good" written all over it. Three elements spell trouble (1) a quiet service (2) my brother within earshot (3) my mom giving her grown sons worried looks and saying "your not too old to get in trouble" with just a look, no words.
Scott is 6'8 inches tall and I am 6'1. As he sits down, I grumble, "Well, I can't see anymore" as if I am talking to Kelly. Since Scott and I both have Christmas Eve giddiness that is all it took. Scott starts laughing and his shoulders are shaking. Mom, in disbelief, is already shooting him looks like "are you kidding me?"
That visual is enough to make me start laughing and suddenly tension has filled the extremely quiet sanctuary. Our wives are thinking "oh no" and start trying to control a train they can see leaving the rails.
In the middle of my brother and I laughing the more we try to gain control the more we lose it.
At this point it is like my mother calls the angels in heaven to come calm us down. I kid you not I have never seen this before, the choir surrounds us! The choir comes down both sides of the church, stops and starts singing. My brother and I are both on the end of our respective pews. We could both reach out and touch a choir member 2 feet away.
Of all the songs they could sing they start singing a very high pitched song with the words "Still Still" in an opera kind of style. It was like they were singing right at us! I know the choir had put in a lot of time rehearsing and we needed to stop, but the pressure and holiness of the situation only made matters worse. Our laughing was getting out of control and the mama wasn't happy.
We regained control and marveled to our self that mom had the power to send a whole fleet of choir people in choir robes to come tell us to be still!
That did not hold a prayer to a song that would be sung towards the end of the service. Every great Christmas Eve service has a candle lighting moment. The instructions are always the same. The person with the unlit candle gets the fire from the lit candle. The lit candle is always to be held straight up. This keeps hot wax from dripping.
Scott and I had redeemed ourselves and were holding our lit candles singing joyfully "silent night holy night...". What happened next I had never witnessed before, though I had heard stories of it occurring.
A little girl in the pew in front of my mom caught her hair on fire and did not realize it was on fire! The hair spray in her hair caused the fire to grow rapidly. My mom put it out with her bare hands. Needless to say, the fire got put out pretty quick and the little girl was unharmed or this story would not be funny.
My nephew sitting beside my mom had a great view on the whole situation. I of course could not see through the commotion and this large Goliath sitting in front of me. By my nephew's account the dad had a reaction you don't hear much at a Christmas eve service. As he looked down the pew and saw his daughter's hair on fire he lunged toward her saying, "Holy Sh**!"
Two things here (1) we must give him credit because he said Holy (2) we should not judge him, his daughters hair was on fire- enough said. I think you get a pass on any comments when you have a child on fire.
The candlelight service concluded and we knew we had been a part of a instant classic. I was already having a little sadness that both Christmas Eve services were over. I was already looking down the road to next year.
The good news, it is already October 2013 and Christmas Eve is right around the corner.
Lucy on the look out for Christmas
Ahhh yes, the smell of Christmas and burnt hair is in the air.
"Still Still"
Any funny Christmas Eve Services you want to share?
Robb
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