Okay good now I have your attention. Every year we decry the materialism of the season, how it's being co-opted, and how Christmas is being pushed more and more into Advent. As I'm doing our liturgical planning for the Christmas season I realize how the Church itself is partially to blame. Quite honestly, after December 25th the season gets pretty depressing. For a quick look at the calendar - December 26th commemorates St. Stephen - a Deacon and Martyr (he gets stoned to death), December 27 is St. John, and the reading involves Jesus reinstating Peter and chewing him out at the same time, and December 28th is the feast of Holy Innocents - yup we celebrate when King Herod killed all the young boys under the age of two. Then for the Sundays themselves: In the first Sunday after Christmas we read John 1:1-18, which is lovely if you have a degree in theology, but in general it takes a lot to understand what's going on. The second Sunday has several options for readings,