Why We Should Sing Christmas Carols Now

This Advent season at the church I serve we are going to be focusing on Singing Our Way to the Manger. I have been working on a written devotional with that title. In the coming weeks I will offer some additional thoughts about carols, the ways they help us prepare for the birth of Christ, and why we should sing them leading up to Christmas for that exact reason. I think many reading this might thing, duh! But you need to know that during seminary it was drilled into me that singing Christmas carols was bad...and for a UCC seminary to say something was bad really meant something! We prefer soft verbs and affirming all people. But it was clear to me, stick to the dirges during Advent (four Sundays before Christmas) so that the carols really means something comes Christmas. I don't know who started this movement, but I have decided to stop following. We are going to sing Christmas carols with wreak-less abandon at church every Sunday leading up to and after Christmas.