Sing Toward Christmas

 There is an Advent hymn written by Shirley Erena Murray that has these words to begin the first 2 verses:

Look toward Christmas! Advent is here:

welcome December changing the year,... (verse 1)
Set the world singing, make the world glad!
Now is good reason not to feel sad,... (verse 2)

As we come to the end of November Advent has arrived once again. Time to ramp up our preparations for Christmas. How do we prepare for this, one of the central festivals of the church year?

There are, of course, many ways to answer that question. We decorate. Some people engage in a frenzy of baking. Some spend hours buying that perfect gift. Some make travel plans to see family. And probably a whole lot of other things I can’t think of right now.

What about in the church? How do we prepare ourselves for Christmas?

We light candles and remind ourselves of Hope, Peace, Joy, and Love. Choirs practice special music. Plans are made for the Christmas Eve celebration. Some places still plan for the Christmas Pageant. Personally as a worship planner I like to find some unifying theme to carry through the season, just to focus myself. So what about Advent 2026?

As long as I can remember a big part of the Christmas season has been music. Being the child of a choir member might have something to do with that but I am pretty sure I am not alone. So this fall I had the thought that maybe we could use songs of the season as our touchstone as we march through Advent. I got Alison on board and came up with the theme Sing Toward Christmas.

So each week we will have a song whose story will be told at Children’s time and will probably get worked into the service in some other way. Here is what is planned thus far:

• November 29, Advent 1: Sing Toward Christmas: The Melody of Hope with the song being “It Came Upon a Midnight Clear”
• December 6, Advent 2: Sing Toward Christmas: The Pealing Bell of Peace with the song being “I heard the Bells on Christmas Day”
• December 13, Advent 4: Sing Toward Christmas: The Trumpet Call of Joy with the song being “God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen”
• December 20, Advent 4: Sing Toward Christmas: Love’s Soothing Lullaby with the song being “O Little Town of Bethlehem”

Come join as as together we sing our way to Christmas!