From Our Readers
1 Dec 2008
Christmas: We are all celebrating one glorious event ~ the birth of our Lord and Savior. However, even though the event is the same, we have many ways to celebrate. For example, Margaret’s family in Montana has a special way of decorating the family tree. They set their tree up on the 1st Sunday of Advent and decorate it with Jesse Tree ornaments. On the 2nd Sunday, apples are added as a remembrance of Adam and Eve. The 3rd Sunday sees purple balls. It all comes down on the 4th Sunday when the regular family decorations go up. Anne in Michigan enjoys her family’s trip to the Christmas Tree Farm to cut their own tree and singing “Happy Birthday” to Jesus. Another family has one member acting as a Christmas Angel. This angel ensures that each family member has a gift to open, then they open them together.
The two most popular Mass options are Midnight Mass and the Children’s Mass. Those families with younger children seem to prefer the Children’s Mass. It’s very difficult to ask a young child to be alert, attentive and well behaved at midnight when their little bodies are so used to sleeping at that hour. But those families whose children have grown up seem to enjoy Midnight Mass. Not that there is anything wrong with any other Mass, there is just something special about Midnight Mass.
Some Christmas Eve traditions include baking a birthday cake for Jesus, gathering with relatives and opening gifts. One tradition is gathering together and reading Clement C. Moore’s “A Visit from St. Nicholas” (aka “Twas the Night Before Christmas”) and then reading the nativity story from the Gospel. One of our cover girl’s traditions is receiving a new pair of PJs. My mother started a tradition when I was young of getting each child a new ornament, and now I continue the tradition with my own children.
Then there’s food. Here, too, traditions are many and varied! One family has French Dip every Christmas Eve, while another family dines on homemade pizza. Still other families have full meals with all the trimmings on Christmas Eve, then feast on leftovers on Christmas. I heard from one family who makes sure that the food is prepared in advance so that Mom doesn’t have to cook on Christmas Day! On Christmas morning, some families have big egg breakfasts, other eat homemade sticky buns and still others enjoy hot chocolate and cinnamon rolls. Food can elicit strong emotions: Rosalie from Illinois writes, “When you smell gingerbread, you think Christmas.”
But Christmas doesn’t end when we go to bed on December 25th. Many families continue the celebration through the Epiphany. During Advent, and through Christmas Day, most nativity sets are incomplete. In some families the Wise Men aren’t brought out at all until the Epiphany, while in others the Wise Men are present and moved closer to the crèche each day.
No matter how you prepare for and celebrate, remember it’s all a beautiful manifestation of the most glorious gift of life: the miraculous birth of our Redeemer.
I hope you all had a magnificent and miraculous Christmas!
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