It's still Christmas, please don't take down that tree!

This is the day when discarded trees begin to litter the curb, awaiting trash pick-up. Admittedly, Christmas begins to wear thin after awhile. The presents have all been unwrapped, the warm cider drunk, and the cookies eaten. The guests have all gone home, and today most of us are probably back at work. As regards the tree itself, at least if it's the real thing, the needles are probably beginning to fall off. From a practical standpoint, it's totally understandable that we're ready to move on to New Year's with resolutions and fresh starts and all.

But for the love of God--seriously, for the love of God--please make a resolution right now not to follow the horde!

A Christmas tableau from the Christmas Vigil Mass at St. Peter's, Middle Ridge, Wis.

The problem, of course, is that our secular, consumerist-oriented society has started turning the wheels of Christmas too early, and we've been madly spinning like hamsters ever since in order to keep up the frenetic pace. There is a collective groan every year following Thanksgiving, when the Christmas sales begin. Actually, in recent years I've seen Christmas sales as early as Halloween. The lights have been up since the beginning of the month. I've learned the hard way that you can't show up at tree farm and expect to get a tree after mid-December. There simply aren't any trees left by that point.

There are economic forces at play here that don't need to be belabored. But most of us are at least vaguely aware of how the ever-earlier Christmas has robbed us of Advent, that period of expectation and anticipation. Have you ever tried to avoid hearing Christmas carols, even to the beginning of the octave prior to the Lord's Nativity? The distinction would be between Joy to the World, the Lord has come, which implies Christmas is here, and O come, O come, Emanuel, which signifies that we are still awaiting the Savior's birth. Don't turn on the radio or visit a Christmas market if you're trying to avoid the early celebration.

Of course, we're too late for these warnings. Yet somehow we need to live in the world even as we strive to live the distinctiveness of our faith. I'm actually serious: Continuing to celebrate Christmas is striving to live our faith, the very sort of counter-cultural example that we Christians are called to be. I can't think of a clearer instance in our culture where one consciously declares, "I am a Christian," than in continuing to celebrate with earnestness at least through Jan. 6, Epiphany, the traditional twelfth day of Christmas.

So how exactly does one continue to celebrate, especially if one is already experiencing Christmas "fatigue"? Here are a few practical examples from our own family efforts:

-- First of all, do keep the tree up. Add water to the base and vacuum up those needles. With LED lights, there really is little fire danger, even if the tree is dead. You simply need a visible symbol of Christmas in your house, and in our American culture that's principally the tree.

-- We also continue to illuminate our outside Christmas lights through Epiphany. After New Year's, we're practically the only ones with lights still on, but again, that's the counter-cultural example that I mentioned above.

-- Keep things fresh. We do little things, like gradually moving the Wise Men from one side of the room to the other as they make their way toward Bethlehem. Of course, you have to keep the Nativity set up, too. But that's the point. You can also keep things fresh from a culinary point of view. Christmas cookies keep very well in the freezer. We make a huge batch before Christmas and continue to enjoy them all through the season.

-- Commit to attending a few daily Masses. With our move to the country and with the overall busy-ness of farm life, we've attended fewer daily Masses than we used to. But even if you can't make it to church, you can still follow the liturgical cycle and the special feasts of the Christmas octave--the martyrdom of St. Stephen today, the Feast of St. John the Apostle tomorrow, the martyrdom of the Holy Innocents the day after that, and so on. The liturgy is a tour de force of the events surrounding the Nativity and the early Church, and participating in it can rekindle the Christmas spirit.

So, just a few practical examples. It's true that there can be too much even of a good thing. Nonetheless, we need to extricate ourselves from the hyped, consumerist version of Christmas and reclaim it for ourselves. Really, we haven't experienced the "good thing" yet. We're missing out if we quit now. Again, I'm not saying that we can't live in the world and enjoy Santa Claus and presents and all. But our faith calls us to so much more than this world offers, and continuing to celebrate Christmas is a practical, hands-on way to live our faith and be a light to the world