When Does Christmas Begin & End?

December 25th: The end of Christmas? 

Christmas, the second most important solemnity after Easter, may seem to end for some by the morning of December 26, with evergreens left on curbsides and broken tinsel dangling out of recycle bins. Others may think of the "holidays" [which means holy days] as Christmas day (Dec. 25) and New Year's Day (Jan. 1), with "after Christmas" sales packaged in between. But Christmas in the Catholic Church and many other Christian communities involves much more.  The ancient celebration of Christ's nativity (and His other manifestations) begins as a special season on December 25th in the Gregorian calendar and lasts more than just a day or a week, actually climaxing at Epiphany on January 6th. 

If you had already guessed the real number at twelve days (the song might be stuck in your head now), you're pretty much on the right track; after all, Christmas break is at least two weeks, right?  That custom came from Catholic practice.  But although twelve days still encompasses the core ancient feasts of the season for most Christians, Christmas actually ends, depending on the year, anywhere between Jan. 8 and Jan. 13, on the Feast of the Baptism of the Lord, at least in the current ordinary form of the Roman rite (so there could be as many as 20 days, see chart at the bottom).

The Vatican's Universal Norms on the Liturgical Year and the General Roman Calendar explains the time span of the entire season common to the West:

Christmas Time runs from First Vespers (Evening Prayer I) of the Nativity of the Lord [Dec. 24th] up to and including the Sunday after Epiphany or after 6 January." GNLY 33  

Okay, so Christmas doesn't end Dec. 25 or Jan. 6. So what?  Why celebrate it more than a day anyway, regardless of when it begins?  Well, for one thing most modern cultures understand that birthdays are a celebration of life and of the gift of a unique human person for a family.  And even though birthdays were not commemorated quite the same way everywhere in ancient times, or even remembered in some near eastern cultures even today, the nativities of important figures such as leaders and prophets (Gen. 21:1-7; Luke 1:14) and kings were joyfully noted for the record.  The most important birthday of course belongs to the supreme priest, prophet, and king -- Jesus Christ, whose entrance into the world split time into two periods, everything prior to his coming and every year afterward (B.C. & A.D).  We sometimes joke about celebrating a birthday week (or month), but the Church in her wisdom was already on to this centuries ago when by late antiquity, she set apart two to three weeks for celebrating Christ's birth (evidence traces to the second century for a single day celebration), and measured all time by this event. 

It's that important because it's about our salvation:  Christ, who Himself being incarnate of a virgin yet with no earthly biological father, is the new creation who began in this world in a unique way, as simultaneously the Son of Man and eternal Son of God - created as a human and yet uncreated in his divinity.  He is the branch shot forth from the shoot (Mary) to become for us the Tree of Life again, rooting us in God's family. As the new Adam, He reshapes and renews human persons to grow to be what He meant each to be, resembling God in Christ's holy image and likeness.  The detailed origin and evolution of Christmas as a liturgical season is a long story though, not meant to be covered here.  But we can at least look at a snapshot of Christmastide to get an idea of the basic purpose and design of the season as the Church practices it today.  

Why a Season?

In short, the structure and character of Christmastide gradually emerged to honor Emmanuel (as the angels, Holy Family, shepherds, and Magi first did) and serve as a happy proclamation about the historical truth of the Incarnation, that 1) God assumed human flesh from the Virgin Mary and became fully man, manifesting himself as Messiah and Lord, without ceasing to be fully God, and that 2) He came to unite Himself to us in order to redeem us in His holy image and grant each person, by grace, a share His divine Sonship, becoming glorified children of the Father.  So many heresies in early church history denied some aspect of the Incarnation, some asserting that Jesus was more human than divine or more divine than human, or that he was two persons instead of one divine person, and so on.  And even when anti-Catholic errors of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries (hardline Calvinism) tried to suppress Christmas as a feast, such efforts could not succeed for long. 

It is through the splendor and joy of liturgy, prayer, art, and festivity, that Christmas became a clear proclamation of the Gospel truth about who Jesus really is and that He alone is the bridge between man and God. Over time, the various Biblical mysteries about Christ's entrance into the world --  His birth, the maternity of Mary, the Holy Family's exile and humble existence, the persecution of the Innocents, the adoration of the shepherds and Magi, the circumcision and baptism of Jesus -- expanded over the course of days to form a full Christmas season with each feast highlighting a different aspect of God's coming in the flesh. 

On December 11th, 1925, Pope Pius XI explained the importance of such annual feasts: 

For people are instructed in the truths of faith, and brought to appreciate the inner joys of religion far more effectually by the annual celebration of our sacred mysteries than by any official pronouncement of the teaching of the Church. Such pronouncements usually reach only a few and the more learned among the faithful; feasts reach them all; the former speak but once, the latter speak every year - in fact, forever. The church's teaching affects the mind primarily; her feasts affect both mind and heart, and have a salutary effect upon the whole of man's nature. Man is composed of body and soul, and he needs these external festivities so that the sacred rites, in all their beauty and variety, may stimulate him to drink more deeply of the fountain of God's teaching, that he may make it a part of himself, and use it with profit for his spiritual life. QUAS PRIMAS #21 

Even the word Christmas [an Old English portemanteau meaning the "Mass of Christ"] highlights what the Christmas season is all about, since it is through the liturgical feasts that we relive, in a supernatural way, the rhythm of Christ's earthly life, and in worship and Holy Communion that we encounter Christ in a profound, tangible way; Christ, made little as our food (he was placed in a manger after all), unites us to the mysteries of his life and our inheritance. Thus, the joy-filled proclamation of the angels and saints on Christmas day spills over throughout the centuries and becomes our own song.  

The First Part of Christmas: The Octave

Musicians know that octaves are scales containing eight notes, beginning and ending with the same note, just at different pitches (e.g. - C1 to C2).  In a like manner, Jewish octaves of the Old Testament, a time of celebration and rest over eight days, served as sacred time "scales" for specific feasts (Lev. 23:36; Num. 29: 35; 2 Chron. 7:8-9; 2 Macc. 10:6).  Jews today still keep the custom (e.g. - Hanukah is eight days), and early Christians incorporated the practice into their worship as well.  The number eight in Judeo-Christian theology has always signified a new beginning (1 Pet. 3:20-21), the eternal spilling into the created order; hence, this is the reason why early Christians called Sunday the eighth day and church vessels, such as Baptismal fonts, are often octagonal shaped. Octaves in the Church calendar still serve as bookends for one complete sabbath, a time to delight and rest in the glory of a God who accompanies his people:

The celebration of Easter and Christmas, the two greatest solemnities, continues for eight days, with each octave governed by its own rules. GNLY 12

Each day of first eight days of the Christmas season, Dec. 25 - Jan. 1, is considered part of one "scale", one supreme celebration, a prolongation of Nativity joy in the week’s liturgy (called an Afterfeast in the East).  The Daily Office (liturgical prayer) of December 25 is repeated for each day of the octave, emphasizing the ongoing celebration of Christmas with full glory, music, prayer, and song.

The following outline below explains the specific days in the octave and will follow with details about the longer Christmas season as celebrated in the Roman rite.  Some Eastern Catholic commemorations, which differ slightly and trace back to older customs, are noted too.

December 25th 

The Solemnity of the Nativity of the Lord, the birthday of Jesus Christ, the Word Made Flesh, who is the visible image of the invisible God (Col. 1:15). The second divine Person of the Holy Trinity assumed human flesh in the womb of the Virgin Mary and became fully man without ceasing to be God.  His humble birth serves as the turning point of history, where God comes to meet man face-to-face and inaugurate the new creation.  Christ's birthday signifies eternal gifts for us. 

"For you know the gracious act of our Lord Jesus Christ, that for your sake he became poor although he was rich, so that by his poverty you might become rich..."- 2 Corinthians 8:9

The remaining days of the octave include saints, mostly martyrs ("witnesses"), who are called "Companions of Christ" [companion meaning literally to share "bread with"].  The martyrs shared in Christ's passion and reflect the light of Jesus into the dark world through their uncompromising love for Christ and his Church.

December 26th 

Roman: The second day within the octave is the feast of St. Stephen, a deacon and the first martyr after Pentecost.  In Jerusalem, he proclaimed how all the events of salvation history and all the prophets confirmed Jesus as the true Messiah, but he was stoned to death at the behest of the Sanhedrin (Acts 7:59).  Stephen, whose name means "crown", immediately received the ultimate gift, the crown of glory and the beatific vision (Acts 7:54-56). St. Bernard of Clairvaux identified him as a martyr in both "will and deed", and in the United Kingdom his feast is also known as Boxing Day, a time when items for the poor are "boxed" up and donated (deacons took care of the poor in the Bible).  

Eastern Catholic: Dec. 26 is commemorated as the Synaxis or Praises to the Blessed Virgin Mary in the Byzantine and Syriac churches, similar to the Roman feast of Mary, Mother of God on Jan. 1st. 

December 27th 

Roman: Third day within the octave. Feast of St. John the Evangelist. St. Bernard identifies St. John as a martyr in "will but not in deed", since his suffering and exile to Patmos was a "white martyrdom", without the shedding of blood.  John's gospel, written and published in the latter half of the first century, is a profound insight into the mystery of Christ’s Incarnation, the Word made flesh, and our participation in Trinitarian communion. John also identifies Christ as the Light who came to scatter the darkness (John 1:1-5; 1 John 2:8), the Bread of Life (John 6), and the Life made visible in human form (1 John 1:1-2).  With John's natural death around 100 A.D., public revelation (new doctrines revealed by Christ) comes to a close. 

Eastern Catholic: Dec. 27 is the feast of St. Stephen, proto-martyr. 

December 28th 

Roman: Fourth day within the octave. It commemorates the Holy Innocents of Bethlehem, the first in the gospels to share in Christ’s persecution at the hands of a fallen, despotic world. St. Bernard identifies these little children as martyrs in "deed but not will". In this part of the Christmas narrative, the child Jesus is portrayed as a new Moses, identified with the oppressed yet saved by His family and hidden in Egypt, so that one day, He could return to deliver His people from evil (see CCC 530). 

Eastern Catholic:  In the Maronite tradition, Dec. 28 is commemorated as the Adoration of Magi.  In Byzantine Catholic tradition, the day commemorates the 20,000 martyrs of Nicomedia, Christians who were burned inside their church on Christmas day. 

December 29th 

Roman: Fifth day within the octave. Feast of St. Thomas Becket of Canterbury, the English bishop and martyr whose share in the sacrifice of Christ through martyrdom on this date connects him as another close companion of the Savior.

Eastern Catholic: Dec. 29 is the Flight to Egypt and Holy Innocents. 

December 30th 

Roman: Sixth day within the octave.  The Feast of the Holy Family (Jesus, Mary, and Joseph) is normally celebrated Sunday within the octave, or December 30 if there is no Sunday.  As first-born of a new creation, the Son of God humbled himself to share in our human family and experience, gifting himself with the love and care of a particular human mother and particular human foster-father.  In doing so Jesus perfects and sets apart marriage and family as the channel through which the divine and human find mutual company, a domestic church on pilgrimage towards beatitude. 

Eastern Catholic: Maronites commemorate Dec. 30 as the Return from Egypt to Nazareth, essentially a celebration of the Holy Family.  Byzantine Catholics commemorate Sts. David, Joseph the Betrothed, and James the Kinsman the Sunday after the Nativity and on Dec. 30, they commemorate St. Anysia. 

December 31st 

Roman: Seventh day within the octave and memorial of Pope St. Sylvester I.  Sylvester was the pope who ratified the Creed of Nicaea in 325 A.D. which condemned the Arian heresy that claimed the Son of God was a spiritual creature and not equal to God the Father (i.e. - not God and not Savior).  Thus, in the Creed we confess the fundamental Christmas truth about who Jesus is every Sunday: 

I believe in one Lord Jesus Christ, the Only Begotten Son of God, born of the Father before all ages. God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God, begotten, not made, consubstantial with the Father; through him all things were made. For us men and for our salvation he came down from heaven, and by the Holy Spirit was incarnate of the Virgin Mary, and became man.

Eastern Catholic: For Maronites, Dec. 31 is listed in honor of the Word Made Flesh. 

January 1st

Roman: Octave of Christmas and Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God.  A holy day of obligation in most of the Catholic world, it serves as another crescendo for worship, honoring the Motherhood of Mary and the induction of Christ into the Hebrew Covenant with his circumcision and conferral of his saving name. This Latin feast of Mary is perhaps the oldest Roman Marian feast and her ancient Greek title Theotokos (God-bearer) teaches us the truth about her son, Jesus Christ: the human being she gave birth to was truly a divine person, therefore Mary can be called "Mother of God" (see Luke 1:43).

Eastern Catholic: The circumcision of Christ on the eighth day after his birth and St. Basil the Great are commemorated Jan. 1.  Maronites also commemorate the Finding of the Lord in the Temple the Sunday after New Year's Day. 

The Rest of Christmastide

January 2nd 

Roman: The ninth day of Christmas and the memorial of Sts. Basil the Great and Gregory of Nazianzen. These Cappadocian fathers of the East defended the Trinity and the divinity and humanity of Jesus during the Arian heresy of the fourth century. 

Eastern Catholic: Maronites highlight the Presentation of Jesus forty days after his birth.

January 3rd

Roman: Tenth day of Christmas.  Memorial of the Holy Name of Jesus. 

January 4th

Roman (U.S.): Eleventh day of Christmas. Memorial of St. Elizabeth Ann Seton. 

January 5th

Roman (U.S.): Twelfth day of Christmas and twelfth night (vigil of the Epiphany). Memorial of St. John Neumann.  Eastern: St. Paul the Hermit. 

January 6th

Roman: Solemnity of the Epiphany of the Lord, another major feast of the Christmas season.  In fact, Jan. 6 was the original date on which the Nativity of the Lord and all of the mysteries of his childhood plus his Baptism were celebrated in the East.  Epiphany in Western tradition now commemorates the manifestation of the Christ child to the Magi (the Gentiles) and is sometimes called Three Kings Day in different cultures.  In most of the U.S., Epiphany is transferred to the nearest Sunday between Jan. 2 and Jan. 8.  

Eastern Catholic: Called Theophany in the East, Epiphany retains the original emphasis on the Lord's baptism as a manifestation of Jesus as Son of God and Messiah.  At Jesus' baptism in the Jordan by St. John the Forerunner, the Trinity is manifested, the Sacrament of Baptism is foreshadowed, Christ is proclaimed Son of the Father, and Jesus begins his public mission of salvation.  Thus, the blessing of holy water and administration of Baptism is still common in many Eastern Catholic and Orthodox circles in January.  Armenians still celebrate Jan. 6th as the day of the Nativity. 

January 7th 

Roman: Thirteenth day of Christmas. Memorial of St. Raymond of Penafort. 

Eastern Catholic: Synaxis or Praises to St. John the Forerunner.  Many Eastern Orthodox countries which follow the old Julian calendar celebrate the Nativity today. 

January 8th - January 13th

Roman: Days within the Christmas week after Epiphany. For the Roman rite, the Baptism of the Lord is not celebrated Jan. 6 but is commemorated the Sunday after Epiphany or after January 6 if no Sunday (thus Christmas can end at 15 days or extend as much as 20 days).  With the Baptism of Jesus, Christmas comes to an official end in the Roman rite (prior to the 1955 revision of the general Roman calendar, Epiphany had its own octave starting Jan. 6, the Magi, and always came to an end on the fixed date of Jan. 13th, the Baptism of the Lord).  Although the season after Christmas is today called "Ordinary time" (counted time) in the Roman rite, it was once called the season after Epiphany and additional Sundays in January still commemorate other Epiphany moments such as Christ's first public miracle at the wedding feast of Cana.  

Eastern Catholic: After January 6, the East enters into the season of Epiphany which lasts until the few preparation Sundays before Great Lent. 

February 2nd 

Feast of the Presentation of the Lord Jesus. Forty days after His birth, Jesus was presented in the Temple by his mother -- a picture of the new Ark of the Covenant (Mary) carrying the presence of God (Jesus) back to the Holy of Holies.  The elder Simeon declares Christ a light to the Gentiles (Lk. 2:32); hence, the custom of blessing candles for the church year gives this day its Old English name: Candlemas.  Since February 2 marks the halfway point of winter, the feast reminds the faithful once again that the Christ Child is the light who scatters the darkness.  The day is not part of the Christmas season proper (it was unofficially the final Christmas holiday prior to 1955), but it is another highlight of Epiphany related feasts.  For the East, the Presentation is, with Christmas Day and Theophany, one of the twelve great feasts of the ancient calendar.  Some Catholics leave manger scenes, trees, or lights up until this date.  The Vatican has been known to do so in some years. 

Christmas is Eternal 

The fact that Christmas, as a liturgical season of worship and rest, is more than a day or even a week serves to remind the faithful that the reality of the Word made Flesh, who, out of supreme love for the world, humbled himself as a poor child to draw and elevate man into the splendor of divine life and love, is not a mystery which can be simply grasped in one, a thousand, or even ten thousand days; for Christmas (and its sister feast of the Annunciation nine months earlier on March 25) is how Eternity transformed time, the cosmos, and mankind forever.  So perhaps, instead of ditching the lights and tree a couple days after Dec. 25th, or taking apart our manger scenes, we can leave them up the full season to remind us of the great self-gift of Christ, the light who enlightens all men and whose tender mercy makes stony hearts cheerful and childlike before God again. 

The Catechism sums up the main message of Christmas: 

To become a child in relation to God is the condition for entering the kingdom. For this, we must humble ourselves and become little. Even more: to become "children of God" we must be "born from above" or "born of God". Only when Christ is formed in us will the mystery of Christmas be fulfilled in us. Christmas is the mystery of this "marvelous exchange": O marvelous exchange! Man's Creator has become man, born of the Virgin. We have been made sharers in the divinity of Christ who humbled himself to share our humanity. - CCC 530

 

© Article, graphics, and video by Joe Aboumoussa