Ministry Wednesday- Christmas in Montebello

My least favorite Christmas song of all time is Feliz Navidad. It’s not that I don’t like the Spanish (language), or the melody, I just don’t think it’s very Christmas-y. My idea of Christmas consists of Norman Rockwell paintings, Bing Crosby, and Charlie Brown Christmas, none of those things really give off the whole “Feliz Navidad” vibe.

there's the vibe I was looking for.

When I moved out to Montebello it was the start of the summer and I was going through a ton of changes in my life. Summer has never been my favorite season and so it made it hard to acclimate to my new surroundings. I found myself dreaming of the day when the weather would be cooler, the nights longer, and the streets of Montebello would be decorated in beautiful lights. When the season finally came I realized that Christmas in Montebello is not the same as Christmas in Villa Park. I don’t know why I thought it would be but I did nonetheless.

Large signs reading “Feliz Navidad” lined the streets with multi colored decorations, there wasn’t a single picture of snow or snowmen to be found and there were signs every few blocks reading “fresh tamales sold here!” Why in the world would someone want to eat a tamale for Christmas? Apparently that’s a thing in the Mexican culture that’s incredibly common. To me there is no Mexican food that is Christmas-y. I just can’t imagine walking into a taqueria on Christmas morning and seeing an ideal Christmas setting, but yet this song “Feliz Navidad” exists. This song that never made sense to me is a common Christmas song.

Ever since I got here I found myself pushing against the culture. I would say things like “sometimes this feels like a mission(s) field, and I just want to go home”, I barely got through that first Christmas. The only reason I did was because I flew out to Missouri to see my family. Missouri doesn’t need pictures of snow, it has real snow. It has real evergreen trees.  As the year continued after that winter season, I found myself more and more at home in Montebello. I started to know the streets, the good restaurants (and that’s not just because they opened a Chipotle), and what a typical high school student would do on the weekend (the local Krikorian is apparently a hot spot).

So Christmas came around again this year and I found myself prepared this time. I actually wanted tamales (even though I didn’t get any this past Sunday, grumble). I still don’t like Feliz Navidad but I’ve found some spirit of Christmas in all of this.

This reminds me of a conversation with a friend of mine (most things do, I guess I’m blessed with that). He knows this guy at his church who hates “the commercialization of Christmas”. He hates Santa; he hates all of the malls and craziness. He wants Christmas to be contemplative with people to solemnly think about the true impact of Christ’s birth. It’s like he’d prefer watching Charlie Brown Christmas without all the stuff at the beginning and instead just having Linus’ monologue on repeat. Being a Christian and seeing all of the crazy commercialization I can’t help but kind of understand but here’s the problem.

See these people are just really excited about Jesus.

Christmas is a celebration of the Spirit of Christ. Christ came eating and drinking to the point that some called Him a glutton and a drunk (Luke 7:34). He knew how to party, and when we say celebration is there any part of you that thinks “Bible study”? My friend put it like this: it’s like having a birthday party and then saying ‘of course I don’t have any presents, or games, I’m just going to sit here and think about how awesome you are.” I mean that’s great and all, but no presents? That’s too commercial. No party streamers? That’s pagan. Are there party streamers in the Bible? No games? How do games help me to show you how awesome you are?

A celebration of something implies that you let loose. My first thought is “I’m gonna have to loosen my belt for this cause there’s gonna be pizza!” And Christmas is supposed to be a celebration in the name of Christ. It should be the celebration to end all celebrations! And that’s how it’s become what it is today.

Now we can finally get back to the whole Montebello thing.

I’m starting to see the way people celebrate here, and it helps me to let loose. It helps me to put aside all of my worry and judgment (and Judgy Mc Judge Face attitude, as Kate put it). I’ve come to love the people here and celebrating with them is a way of sharing that love, of just letting go.

Now to tie the two things together…

Let’s say Santa is to that one guy as Tamales are for me (or for those studying for the SATs “Santa: some dude:: Tamales: Alex”). They’re just not a part of what I imagine when I think of Christmas. Now I think it’s fair for me to call this total stranger a Scrooge for this main reason, when people came to him with hearts full of cheer ready to celebrate Christ he responded with “this isn’t good enough”. Now if a woman came to me with a dozen Tamales on Christmas ready to celebrate Christ I’d eat 10 of the tamales and then put the others aside “for later” then eat them as soon as she left, I’d hate to look like a fatty.

I would but it's just too commercial, ya know?

For the first year I was here I was a Scrooge. I couldn’t imagine this being what Christmas was really about. When I saw others celebrating I had an air of condescension (like the phrase “air of condescension” has, I couldn’t say superiority because I’m just above that). I knew the secret of what Christmas was supposed to be and they just didn’t get it. But as is often the case I was completely wrong. These people were celebrating with all their hearts and I was stopping myself from letting go and expressing my love for Christ.

See when we talk about the true Spirit of Christmas I think it takes on many forms (and I’m not just trying to be post-modern). That’s part of the greatness of it is how the spirit of Christmas takes the best part of any culture and makes it better. What’s the best part of Mid-western culture: snow, and Americana, and over eating of all sorts of fatty foods. What’s the best part of Montebello culture: crazy decorations, tons of tamales, maybe even a piñata. The only reason why we have images like Santa is because St. Nicolas wanted to give his best during Christmas and then people just kept making him out to be better and better than what he originally was, now he’s a legend.

there goes Santa.

So this Christmas put your whole heart into it, wherever you are. Accept the celebrations of others and celebrate with them because the best thing about anywhere you go is community (not the TV show).  You can’t celebrate by yourselves, so surround yourself with friends and family and let yourself go.