Celebrate with the kings: Keeping Christmastide

Don’t let Dec. 26 fall flat, it’s still the most wonderful time of the year! Embrace liturgical living and maintain a consistent pace of festive celebration and excitement within your home for all of Christmastide. 

Christmastide is the liturgical season of Christmas, beginning with the vigil Mass on Christmas Eve and continuing until the Feast of the Baptism of the Lord Jesus. Some families may choose to celebrate heavily during the Christmas-octave, which ends on the Solemnity of Mary, the Mother of God, or the first 12 days of Christmastide, concluding on the Epiphany. 

However long your family chooses to celebrate, make sure your Christmas festivities don’t last just one day! Need some inspiration to keep the hot chocolate flowing and children caroling all season long? Here are some ideas to help your celebration last until Epiphany, or beyond!  

Praise and prayer 

Christmas is an incredibly sacred and festive time that the Lord has gifted us to celebrate the great mystery and saving power of His Incarnation. To celebrate well, we must pray well! 

Filling the home with Christmas hymns during these days is a beautiful form of worship. Committing to memory a few of the verses, taking the time to meditate on their meaning, and singing them joyfully in praise and thanksgiving is a beautiful way to pray together with your family. 

The Litany to the Infant Jesus is a powerful prayer, especially suitable during the Christmas season. The repetitive nature of the litany makes it simple for even the smallest children to participate and is especially sweet to pray around your family creche. 

Remembering to pray for loved ones, near and far, is much easier with Christmas cards! Display the Christmas cards in your home or punch a hole in the corner and put them on a ring and make it a practice to pray for a few families each day at mealtimes or during family prayer. Keep the Christmas card ring on hand all year to continue praying for these families or save them to cut out their pictures into hearts for a Valentine’s Day garland! 

Feast days galore 

As if the Nativity of our Lord Jesus Christ isn’t enough reason to celebrate, there are other feast days to remember during Christmastide as well. Sing Good King Wenceslaus on the feast of St. Stephen (Dec. 26) and bring diapers to a pregnancy center on the Feast of the Holy Innocents (Dec. 28). Open Christmas crackers to celebrate English Martyr St. Thomas Becket (Dec. 29) and have a family fun-day on the Feast of the Holy Family (Dec. 30). 

After Mass on the Solemnity of Mary, the Mother of God (Jan. 1), go out to eat or have a delicious dinner at home. While feasting, reminisce on joys, challenges, blessings, and fruits from the previous year and take a few moments to dream about the coming year. This would be a wonderful time to pray together as a family and ask God to guide you in service and love of Him and others in the coming year. 

Deck the halls some more

When the world is taking down their Christmas decorations and tossing out their Christmas tree, elevate yours! Save some special dishes or home decorations that you only pull-out during Christmastide. Even if they’re only used for a few days each year, you and your children will remember them with great excitement and nostalgia, making them seem even more special and memorable as the years progress. 

Space out the presents 

The Christmas gift rush can be overwhelming on Christmas day. A benefit of spreading out the joy of Christmas is the ability to intentionally spread out the gifting that naturally comes with Christmas. There are a multitude of ways to do this, but families might choose a small gift or adventure each day during Christmastide or stick to St. Nicholas gifts on Christmas day and family gifts on Epiphany. 

Spreading out the gifts gives children a chance to slow down and appreciate what they have been given without constantly looking to what comes next. This practice aids in cultivating the virtue of patience and joyful anticipation. 

Christmastide calendar 

If keeping up the excitement feels daunting, consider planning activities and celebrations ahead of time. Like an Advent calendar, create a Christmastide calendar that your family can open each day. The calendar might have some bigger outings like going ice skating or to a children’s museum, and some days might have something as simple as drinking hot chocolate with lunch or watching a Christmas movie in the afternoon.

Wise men on the move

Just as the three kings saw the star of Bethlehem and followed it in search of the King, the wise men from your nativity scene can move about the house. Each day, move the wise men to a different location in the house as they make their way toward the creche. Children will delight in finding them each day on their journey to the King. To add a level of excitement, the wisemen can write a note each day with an act of kindness or prayer for the family to complete. 

Once the wise men reach the baby Jesus on the Solemnity of the Epiphany of the Lord, then the family can celebrate with a Kings Day celebration. No Epiphany celebration is complete without a proper King Cake, but that’s just the opinion of this Louisiana native. 

Involve community

Celebrating the joy of Christ’s nativity can easily extend outside of your domestic church. This is a great time to connect with other families and reach out to neighbors to spread the joy and light of Christ. 

Families might take turns hosting different events in their homes, such as a cookie exchange, caroling, bonfire, game night, or a Christmas tea. 

When we make room for others in our hearts and homes, we are making room for Christ. Sharing the goodness and joy of the Christmas season, and coming together in worship of the infant King, is a powerful way to bear witness to the miracle and mystery that is the Incarnation. 

Feast on God’s goodness 

Mother Church, in her wisdom, has asked us to allow our heart to rest in God’s goodness and feast for an entire season during Christmas. God wants us to cultivate joy, laughter, and abundance within our families and community. This liturgical feasting is a small foretaste of the eternal feast. 

Here’s to celebrating until the branches are brittle on your Christmas tree and the radio stations have stopped playing Christmas music. Keep the joy and sacredness of the Christmas season fully alive in your hearts and homes all through Christmastide.