Christmas is right around the corner, but it feels like it has been Christmas for months. Stores have been packed with Christmas decor since Halloween, making the season seem to drag on forever before it has even started. You’re trying to live liturgically, but a lot of the world celebrates Christmas during Advent. So, how do we celebrate Christmas as Catholics?
For starters, a lot Catholics hold back celebrating until Christmas day. We know that the twelve days of Christmas is a whole season, not just a day! That’s right, Christmas lasts a whole twelve days, just like the song! (Fun fact: The song “The Twelve Days of Christmas” was meant to catechize children in England during a time when Catholics were persecuted.)
Christmas season goes until The Baptism of the Lord, so one of the easiest ways to keep the twelve days going is just to leave your tree up. We leave ours up until The Baptism of the Lord. So many people take their tree down the day after Christmas, when the Christmas season has just begun! While the world has moved on to the next thing, we try to keep Christmas going for a few more days.
One thing you could do is save all your Christmas Cards and over Family prayer time you could pray for a different family every night. Here is our Christmas Card from last year!
One of the ways in which we try to live liturgically is to both celebrate and differentiate between Advent and Christmas. Some things will overlap, but we try to keep the celebrations different during each season. For example, we don’t really eat Christmas cookies during Advent. We might eat some on Sundays, because Sundays are considered feast days.
On Christmas Eve, we have a plate of cookies and hot chocolate. This is an easy way to teach my children the difference between Advent and the Christmas season. (Don’t sweat, it’s not a sin to eat cookies during any time in Avent! This is just something our family does.)
If you really want to make each day of Christmas special, try opening a gift every day! One of the really unique things my sister does is have her children open one gift for each of the twelve days of Christmas. It might not last for the whole twelve days, but it still makes each gift feel very very special. I like this idea, because my kids tend to get very overwhelmed on Christmas day. Although I’ve cut back on my gift giving, they still receive so many presents from extended family. This way of celebrating means that the focus isn’t on the presents, it’s on Jesus.
Another way to celebrate Christmas is to observe one of the many feast days that fall during the Christmas season. There is the Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God on Jan 1, as well as The Holy Innocents, St. Stephen the Martyr, St. John the Evangelist, and Epiphany.
For Epiphany, you could make a kings cake! Some families have a tradition of making a kings cake and putting a hollow baby Jesus inside. Whichever child is served the slice with Jesus gets to be king for the day! That means everyone must do as the little king commands. It’s a lot of fun! Here is a full day of Epiphany Day fun we do as a Catholic family if you are looking for more ideas.
Living liturgically doesn’t have to be hard. It can be as simple as keeping your tree up a little longer! I hope you have a beautiful Christmas, and if you any favorite Christmas traditions, please share! Drop a comment below!
One Response
Hello Heather, thank you for this interesting post. Some great info and ideas! Much appreciated.