I give thanks for The Lord for many blessings, including growth that I have experienced over the years.  Such growth is evident to me in my reluctance now to get involved in issues that in past years, I would have embraced heartily.  One of these is "Christmas Parties" at church and elsewhere that are regularly scheduled way before our Church begins the celebration of Christmas.  Unfortunately, (I say) we are victims of a secular and commercialistic society that now plays Christmas music and displays symbols of Christmas (both secular and religious) as early as the beginning of November.  The challenge for us as Catholics is to be able to enter into the Advent season (which begins on December 2) as a time of waiting, and preparing both for Christ's coming again in glory and the celebration of His first coming which BEGINS at the Masses of Christmas and lasts until the Baptism of the Lord on January 13.  I would truly be joy-filled and very complimentary if someone were to invite me to a "Christmas gathering" that is between December 25 and January 13.  Following the Church's (and not society's) calendar for me, means singing Advent songs during Advent and spending time in spiritual reading and prayer in preparation for the joy of the true Christmas Season.