As soon as the kids go back to school, we start seeing signs that The Holiday is coming. Halloween isn't even over before the decorations and music of the Yuletide season are pounding our senses, and people have started to ponder budgets and gifting requirements. In the world of secular, nominal Christianity, the season of Advent is spent anxiously awaiting The Big Event, the day to end all days, the most anticipated moment of the year. For a brief time, anything is possible. Santa rules the skies and the minds of children (and their desperate parents,) and the stores are filled with the stuff that makes up modern living, so we can shower our nearest and dearest with ever more goods to show how much we love them.
