I used to be a real stinker about Advent/Christmas.  My issue has always been that there is a Christmas season and it starts on December 25 and goes until Epiphany, the 12 Days of Christmas”.   It doesn’t start after Halloween or Thanksgiving it starts after Christmas Eve.  I have gotten ground down over the years.  My wife loves to decorate for the season and usually starts right after Thanksgiving and so one of her ideas was instead of a Christmas tree let’s have a Chrismon tree.  She made each of the ornaments and everyone of them has a meaning.  There is a number on the back and you can go and look at the Biblical meaning or reference.  It one of my favorite trees.

This is the symbol for Christ inside a stylized sun.  Christ is the “sun of righteousness”.  Malachi says “The Sun of Righteousness shall rise, with healing in its wings.”

Sun of Righteousness is connected to the image of the day, the day of the Lord. This shining forth of the Sun of Righteousness is connected with the “day”, so Jesus is called “the dayspring from on high.”

That is in the song of Zechariah, the father of John the Baptist, when John the Baptist was born.

Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel; * he has come to his people and set them free. He has raised up for us a mighty savior, * born of the house of his servant David. Through his holy prophets he promised of old, that he would save us from our enemies, * from the hands of all who hate us. He promised to show mercy to our fathers * and to remember his holy covenant. This was the oath he swore to our father Abraham, * to set us free from the hands of our enemies, Free to worship him without fear, * holy and righteous in his sight all the days of our life.

You, my child, shall be called the prophet of the Most High, * for you will go before the Lord to prepare his way, To give his people knowledge of salvation * by the forgiveness of their sins. In the tender compassion of our God * the dawn from on high shall break upon us, To shine on those who dwell in darkness and the shadow of death, * and to guide our feet into the way of peace.

And we have the hymn Phos Hilaron that we sing at vespers, “O Gladsome Light of the glory of the immortal Father, heavenly, holy, blessed, Jesus Christ.”