The crowd at Church on Christmas is so varied. There are the younger parishioners who wear casual clothes. Then there are those who wear their best to Church because they believe in owning both regular clothes and Church Clothes. You can see who the old guard is and who is there because it's Christmas.
The Christmas Eve service at my Brother's church revolves around the kids. There is a kids' choir. The kids are invited to gather around the priest and the sing Happy Birthday to Jesus. Yes, you read that correctly. They can also take a small a baby Jesus (like a Christmas ornament) with them and have the priest bless it. Two of my three nieces took baby Jesus to the priest. My nephew was in the choir. My third niece didn't take a baby Jesus--she took a toothbrush. My mom and I could barely control our laughter as my niece went running up front to have her toothbrush blessed...
Anyway, we were there to watch my nephew. And we did, but I think I spent more time watching the other kids. I find it so interesting too see that many kids in one spot. You can tell, even at the ages of nine or ten, what type of people they are. There were two girls at the end of the second row who kept making "Gawd" looks on their faces when something or someone was different. There was the mousy girl. There was the bouncy boy (that would be my nephew). And then there was the girl destined to be a theater geek. The future theater geeks are easy to pick out. They don't fit in for various reasons that usually revolve around clothing and the need to be the dramatic center of attention. The Theater Geek girl was wearing striped leggings and a shirt with a ruffle on the bottom and Crocs. Quite the outfit for Church. But more than that, when she sang, she sang like she was in a musical production. She made dramatic faces, she acted like she was playing the trumpet. If they'd let her go, she might have broken out into a full chorus line. I couldn't stop watching her the entire time, and by the end of Mass, I thought she was the coolest little girl up there because she was out to have fun, rules be damned.
Along those same lines, my other favorite thing was the shoes one of the alter boys was wearing:
Those were some slick gold sneakers.
1 comment:
If my family's stodgy old Catholic church had some more fun stuff like the singing of "Happy Birthday" to Jesus and/or the ornament/toothbrush blessings, I'd be much more likely to suck it up one day a year for the sake of family harmony. ;-) (My immediate family hasn't gone to a Christmas mass in about oh, five or six years now? Oh, so lapsed!)
Those gold shoes = fabulous, and definitely dressy enough for church. (haha)
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