Yet another Kilted Christmas Party

[MacMullen]

Just returned from our church Christmas party. Our Christmas party is not formal, but it is definitely a dress in your "church clothes" kind of event, with a catered meal, singing Christmas carols, etc. The members of the church had seen pics of me from the early Burn's Supper that I attended in November, but they had not yet seen me kilted in person, so I was pretty nervous about how they would react to seeing their pastor in a kilt.

When I first walked in a number of cameras came out and flash bulbs were popping. The women all loved the kilt, a couple of the men joked about the skirt, but other than that it was very well received. After about 15 minutes of initial questions from various people, it was no big deal. I could just as well have been wearing trousers.

Below are the only kilt pics that I had on my camera from the party. The pics I have are from a reading of Martin Luther's Christmas Book and then singing carols.

One of my members, a 92 year old woman of Scottish ancestry, became very excited when she saw me in the kilt and sang me a Scottish song that her uncle used to sing to her (can't remember the name of the song now). She also told me that she remembers him wearing the kilt all the time when she was a little girl. When he returned home after World War One he told her that the Scottish regiments wore kilts and that the Germans referred to them as the Ladies from Hell, which I already knew, but it was cool to hear it from someone who was only once removed from the Devils in Dresses.

The kilt hose are off-white. Even though they look white in the pic, they're not. The flashes are Black Watch, but I wish that I had worn red flashes instead. The sporran is my day sporran, but I added a chain, since I do not yet have a dress sporran. Oh yeah, there's also an SWK kilt belt hiding under that sweater vest.

Singing Carols:


Reading Luther:

[Southern Breeze]

Thats a great story and great pics.Thanks for sharing it with us. Our church chriistmas party is Saturday night and I will be kilted. :grin:

[Riverkilt]

A good look Joel,

I like how high you wear the kilt, looks like a kilt there above your knees.

Ron

[flyv65]

What a wonderful story Joel; it sounds like it was a great party. Thank you for sharing the photos, too-very nicely done!

Bryan...I'm sure your parishoners appreciated it also...

[auld argonian]

Oh...and if those were real flashbulbs we'd be talking real money...they're scarce as hen's teeth these days and priced accordingly!

Great that the lady sang you the song...you should try to find some way to approach her and record it for posterity...this history shouldn't be lost.

Looking good and appropriately kilted for the special event...I'm looking forward to kilting my way through a few holiday events around here.

Best

AA

[GMan]

Joel,

Thank you for sharing the story. You have to love the responses in the positive from the older people, as it does warm the heart.

[GlassMan]

Very nice! We had our church Christmas Pageant and White Service. Now before anyone starts crying racism, allow me to explain.

Little River United Church of Christ, when it was founded in 1955, was the first integrated church in Fairfax County, VA. In fact they ran afoul of the law back then because state law required that if a congregation had visitors of another race they had to be seated in a separate area. So Little River reserved the front pews for VIPs, Guests of Honor and people of color!

Anyway, in 1959 the church got together with a group that helped underpriviliged families in the DC area and started a tradition of having the congregation buy gifts for the children. The children each filled out a wish-list card and then members of the congregations took the cards and got the gifts. It was decided that everyone would wrap their gifts in plain white paper to reflect the purity of the Baby Jesus and the color of the season.

The color has hung on and we still wrap the gifts in all white. I have to admit that I was startled at first to hear that we'd be having a White Service but once it was explained I thought it was kind of cute. Of course, it did mean going out and buying yet another roll of wrapping paper (like I don't have enough half-used rolls sitting around because I keep buying some from the neighborhood kid's fundraisers).

Anyway, all that aside, we had the service tonight and of course I went kilted. It was the most attended I have ever seen that church. We usually go to the 11 o'clock service which has a smaller attendance than the 9:30 service. But at this special 5 PM service it was combined like it is during the summer. Of course I was kilted, and everyone it is such a common thing to see me kilted that no one, not even the one's I met for the first time made a single comment.

Instead everyone was commenting that my partner didn't wear a funnny holiday tie! He always wears a silly tie to church and tonight he went tie-less. Oh, the horror! ;-)

[Cawdorian]

Good look Joel, the kilt looks so great with sweaters. Our minister only wears his kilt on Kirk'n Sunday, I wish he would wear it for other events. Glad to hear your congregation enjoys seeing you in your kilt.

[KiltedCodeWarrior]

Good look Joel, and a great story. You really should try to capture the lady's song for posterity. Too soon opportunities like that are gone.

[Alan H]

Nice...looks good, and sounds like a good party and get-together.