You have spent four weeks preparing for Christmas —don’t let your celebration end after only one day!
Starting on Christmas Day, we invite you to light a Christ Candle (usually a tall, white candle), and gather with your family each evening or during a regular family meal. You may wish to place your Christ Candle in the middle of your Advent Wreath, or you may wish to place it alongside a tabletop nativity set.
As you gather, we invite you to pray. Prayer can be as unique as your family is — so you are encouraged to go off script! At the bottom of this page you will find a couple of prayer options to get your family started!
Feast like a Catholic
The liturgical calendar offers opportunities for preparation (Advent and Lent), followed by seasons of Celebration (Christmas and Easter). We are called to prepare ourselves through prayer, fasting, and giving. This interior work prepares us for a feast — or rather, in the case of Christmas — an entire season of feasting.
During Advent, we prayed for and cultivated the virtues of hope , peace, joy, and love. Now, in the season of Christmas, we offer these virtues to our Lord, welcoming Him in our Family anew.
The 12 19? Days of Christmas
Liturgically speaking, the season of Christmas actually lasts beyond 12 days. Christmas season begins with the Christmas Eve Vigil Mass and lasts through the Feast of the Baptism of Our Lord. This year the Christmas season will last for 19 days, but the length of the season varies slightly each year with the calendar.
Regardless of how you count it, there is no reason to go putting away your Christmas tree quite yet! We invite you us one (or both!) of the prayer and family activity guides below as a starting point — a simple way of welcoming Jesus into your hearts anew this Christmas season!
Family Prayer:
Nightly Prayer and “Table Talk”
The 12 19? Days of Christmas
