I kissed Advent purity goodbye

I was raised in an ecumenical church community affiliated with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. When I later joined a Mennonite church, where many members were not raised with the church calendar, I became a bit of an Advent purist. Maybe a lot of one.

It’s my favorite liturgical season, and I wanted to share that love with others. I earnestly tried to get more Mennonites on board with observing Advent.

I requested that my holiday-music-loving husband avoid playing Christmas music before Christmas Eve, instead making a special playlist with a few selections from Handel’s Messiah and a couple of other safe songs that don't celebrate Christ’s birth as having already happened. I declined to decorate our home until we returned from visiting family, which was usually a few days before Epiphany. (One year I left the decorations up until Lent, which didn’t really make up for anything.)