Our congregation returned to limited in-person worship in October. One service takes place in the sanctuary and is broadcasted over Zoom, and another service is held outdoors. Most of the congregation is still opting to worship with us over Zoom. But being back in the sanctuary has given our worship team a chance to think through how we might celebrate Advent and Christmas together, especially since we worship in a hybrid fashion.
It provoked the question: What is essential to our worship during Advent and Christmas? Traditions rose to the top of the list — like singing Christmas carols and lighting the Advent candles. At the very top of the list was singing “Silent Night” by candlelight on Christmas Eve.
This posed several problems. Singing, for one, is not encouraged. And can you imagine all those people blowing out their candles at the end of the hymn? It’d be an aerosol nightmare! Still, I connect to this feeling that Christmas wouldn’t feel like Christmas without the candles and without “Silent Night.”
So, our team brainstormed ways to adjust the tradition. We settled on purchasing battery-operated candles, which we will gift to the people attending Christmas Eve worship. We will invite them to hum “Silent Night” with their masks on, standing six feet apart, as they turn on their candles.
Battery-operated candles feel like a less-than-ideal solution to the desire to sing “Silent Night” by candlelight. Our traditions will have to adjust this holiday season, and I suspect this will disappoint some people. But then I wonder, what’s so vital about candles on Christmas Eve? Is it the traditions that make Advent and Christmas special, or the stories of Jesus’ birth that we retell? Are the traditions essential or the theology behind the traditions?
Traditions feel good to us, but surely we can remain faithful to the meaning behind Advent and Christmas without them. It’s hard to make COVID-19 holiday traditions; it requires every ounce of our creativity and a lot of compromise. But I suspect it is still possible to have a meaningful holiday without all the trappings of our traditions.
Coming up with new holiday traditions may be even more necessary come Christmas Eve. This month, COVID-19 cases appear to be spiraling out of control in much of the United States. It is possible that our congregation will not worship in person for Christmas Eve — we may do it all by Zoom. But there could be special meaning in every person on the screen digging a candle out of their stuff and lighting it. At the very least, they could sing “Silent Night” with gusto from inside their homes. Whether we are together in person or virtually, the celebration of Jesus’ incarnation is what matters. Even if we use battery-operated candles.
RACHEL YOUNG is the associate pastor of spiritual formation at Clear Lake Presbyterian Church, in Houston, Texas. She is married to Josh, who also serves on staff at Clear Lake Presbyterian as the director of contemporary worship and media.
