Tag: feasting

15 Ways to Keep Christmas in Christmas

Batman ChristmasA very well-meaning person wished me a “belated merry Christmas” the other day. Now, I hate to be pedantic1 but there’s nothing belated about Christmas wishes right now unless you’re talking about last Christmas. I’m sure you all know this, but Christmas has only just begun. In fact, it’s still Christmas day until tomorrow night!2 The octave of Christmas is an eight-day celebration of Christmas day, complete with the Gloria at every Mass and the same psalms in the Office for over a week. Then the season continues past Epiphany (even the Twelve Days of Christmas aren’t enough for us Catholic party animals) until Ordinary Time begins with the Baptism of the Lord (this year, January 12). If you like, you can even go old-school and stretch it to February 2nd for the more traditional Christmas feasting. That gives you at least another week and a half of Christmas, friends, and as much as another month–let’s live it up!

But the Christmas carols went off the air before the 25th was even over. Christmas merchandise is 70% off by now and if you tell people you’re taking a Christmas vacation until mid-January, they’ll think you’re nuts. How do we keep Christmas alive in this world of post-12/25 Scrooges? As always, I’ve got a few thoughts.

  1. Wish everyone a merry Christmas. When they (inevitably) tell you you’re “a little late,” just say cheerfully, “Actually, Christmas doesn’t end until January 12th this year!” Who knows? Maybe it’ll give you an opportunity to witness a little.
  2. Especially keep your nativity sets up! This beautiful (and reasonably-priced) children's set is going to be available soon, along with any Saint you can imagine, on wooden blocks perfect for play. I'll tell you guys all about it soon!
    Especially keep your nativity sets up! How beautiful is this one?

    Keep your Christmas decorations up. When people (inevitably) point out that you’re “a little behind”…see above.

  3. Celebrate Epiphany with a party and king cake and crowns and a rousing rendition of We Three Kings. “Little Christmas” should be a big deal.
  4. Spend some time at a nursing home or helping at a soup kitchen–anywhere they had tons of volunteers last week but are wanting for help after the holiday glow has worn off. That made-for-TV “Spirit of Christmas” you’ve been hearing so much about is, in fact, the Holy Spirit and he prompts you to do works of mercy all year round.
  5. Keep listening to Christmas music. But don’t just listen to it–really meditate on the power of some of those hymns. Try “It Came Upon the Midnight Clear” (especially verses 4 and 5), “What Child is This” (verse 2 breaks me every time) and “O Little Town of Bethlehem” for starters.
  6. Read a book about the Christ Child, the Blessed Mother, or St. Joseph. Pope Benedict’s Jesus of Nazareth: The Infancy Narratives is a great choice while Caryll Houselander’s The Reed of God is much my favorite about the Blessed Mother.
  7. Buy all the discounted white-chocolate-peppermint candy. Eat “birthday cake” after (or for) every meal. Go out to dinner in your tacky Christmas sweater. Feast!
  8. Send out your Christmas cards really, really late. Point out in your letter that your “late” cards are liturgically appropriate while all those overachievers are practically heretics–Christmas cards in Advent? I mean, really!3
  9. Ask parents of young children if you can bring dinner over one evening and/or watch the kids while they go out. If you’re really brave, offer to take the kids out during the day so the parents can nap. Think of it as a favor to the Holy Family.
  10. Keep the Mass in Christmas–add an extra Mass each week to wish Jesus a happy birthday. While you’re at it, throw in a rosary (joyful mysteries, of course) to honor Mary and meditate more on the Incarnation.
  11. Volunteer with an organization that serves homeless families or immigrants. Remember that from the slaughter of the innocents until his return to Nazareth, Jesus was a homeless refugee.
  12. Pretty much all we do around here is pretend to be Jesus and Mary (or the dolphins in the "Bethwehem water!") or play with nativity sets.
    Pretty much all we do around here is pretend to be Jesus and Mary (or the dolphins in the “Bethwehem water!”) or play with nativity sets.

    Spend time playing with your children and their nativity sets. Today, I watched my 2-year-old niece put St. Joseph down for a nap. Then the angel came and woke him: “Joseph! Joseph! FWEEE!!!”4 My nephew keeps gasping and wishing various babies Jesus a breathless “Happy birthday!” These kids know it’s Christmas.

  13. Use social media to share some quotations from Saints and popes on Christmas and the Christ Child. If you’re at a loss, try the Office of Readings–it’s full of them. Or visit Christina over at The Evangelista for beautiful images and meditations.
  14. Have family prayer time that focuses on the infant Jesus. Kneel before your nativity set, let your children hold the baby Jesus, sing Christmas carols, read parts of the Christmas story and discuss how you would have felt in different people’s positions, and find prayers to the Holy Infant. The longer you celebrate Christ and Christmas, the more your child’s happy memories of childhood will be tied to a joyful, lived faith.
  15. Host a Christmas party on January 11th. Seriously, I would be your best friend.

How else will you keep the Christmas in Christmas this season? I’d love to hear your season-long traditions!

Happy New Year, friends, but mostly MERRY CHRISTMAS!!

  1. This is patently untrue. I am a hopeless pedant. [↩]
  2. When I grow up, I want to be such a big deal that the world celebrates my birthday for eight days every year. [↩]
  3. I’m kidding. Don’t be a jerk. [↩]
  4. That’s “flee” for those of you who don’t speak toddler. [↩]

3 Reasons: The Octave

Linking up with Micaela to tell you 3 reasons I love being Catholic. (Props to my sister for sending me the info!)

1. Easter Liturgy

Image from Lawrence, OP, my favorite person on flickr.

How do you even celebrate the Resurrection without fire and candlelight and 7 Old Testament readings and a Gloria with bells and tympani and lights being raised and Alleluias coming out your ears after long weeks without? And how can you settle for an hour one morning to celebrate the greatest thing ever to happen EVER? In my Church, we celebrate Easter Sunday for 8 days and the season for another 42. So far, I’ve gone to 5 Easter Sunday Masses with Alleluias and Resurrection readings and even the Easter sequence chanted at Wednesday’s. In my Church, we don’t confine boundless joy to one day but stretch it over an octave and a whole season beyond.

2. Easter Feasting

I have literally eaten these jelly beans every day this week. Sometimes for breakfast. #itstheoctave!
Sometimes I eat jelly beans for breakfast. #itstheoctave!

Every day this week is a solemnity, and you know what that means: bacon and chocolate, all day every day. Seriously, I’ve eaten jelly beans every day this week and each time it’s prayer. When I have pie for lunch,1 I’m rejoicing in Him who made the heavens and the earth and called it good and then made all things new. And yes, pie is a sign of his love. But I’m not just justifying my gluttony, I’m transformed. Feasting in this Church reminds us that all good things are gifts from the Lord. It transforms the way we party with the result that all good partying leads us to him. Cocktails for Christ!

3. Easter Alleluias

Christ is risenLent’s hard for me, and not just because I’m so hungry. I use the word Alleluia (or Hallelujah, depending on how sassy I’m feeling) all the time. Seriously–when anything good happens or anything bad is avoided or anything edible is around, I’m Hallelujahing up a storm. So I literally have to bite my tongue sometimes during Lent–and I still fail most times.

One year, I made it all the way to Holy Thursday. I was road tripping and listening to Christian radio, but I was vigilant and turned down the volume every time I heard an Alleluia coming. For 40+ days, I drove with one hand on the volume button. And then, with 3 days left to hold strong, I was rocking out to “It’s Raining Men.” Windows rolled down, dancing in my seat, fist pumping out the sun roof while going 65 down the highway.2 And when the chorus started, I shout-sang “IT’S RAINING MEN! HALLELUJAH, IT’S–OH NOOOOOOOO!!!!!” After all that effort, what a way to go out.3

But, my friends, it’s Easter. Which means that every song at Mass is rocking Alleluias, every ice cream cone is accompanied by a round of Alleluias, and half the people I greet let out an Alleluia or two. We are an Easter people and Alleluia is our song–and I, for one, will be singing that song of joy all season long.

In this Church of fasting and feasting, little things take on such meaning and the restraint requires of us bears fruit in this age, thirty and sixty and a hundredfold. I love my Church because she governs every moment of my life, not just Sunday mornings.

 

So what about you? What are you loving about this Church of ours this month? Head over to Micaela’s and link up!

  1. No, I did not mean to say with lunch, don’t judge. [↩]
  2. Admit it: you’re loving this image. [↩]
  3. FYI: it’s okay to say Alleluia during Easter. We just don’t use it in the liturgy. But since it’s such a joyful word and Lent is a penitential season, I try to fast from even the word to make my Easter that much more joyful. [↩]