NeuroDivine

It is striking how commercial culture often rushes us past the quiet waiting of Advent and into a premature celebration of Christmas. The arrival of “Grinch-themed” products in fast-food chains is a vivid example. The Grinch, a character who famously resists Christmas joy, is now being used to sell festive treats weeks before the season itself has even begun. There is irony here: the very figure who tried to steal Christmas is now enlisted to market it before its time.

For those who cherish the rhythm of the Christian year, this feels jarring. Advent is not Christmas. Advent is a season of longing, of candlelight, of patient preparation. It is about holding space for hope in the midst of darkness, about waiting for the promise of Emmanuel—God with us. To skip over Advent is to miss the depth of anticipation that makes Christmas morning so radiant.

When corporations push Christmas imagery into November, they flatten the mystery. They turn a sacred rhythm into a marketing cycle. The danger is that we lose the gift of waiting, the discipline of patience, the beauty of yearning. Christmas becomes a product rather than a promise.

Perhaps the challenge for us is to resist being rushed. To reclaim Advent as a season of holy pause. To light candles slowly, week by week. To let hymns of expectation rise before carols of joy. To remember that Christmas is not something we buy, but something we receive. And when the day finally arrives—after the waiting, after the longing—it shines all the brighter because we have not tried to steal it from its own time.