Celebrating The Traditional 12 Days of Christmas?

[WIS0320]

I converted to Catholicism in 2009 and since then I've felt pulled to celebrate Christmas in a more traditional way. I've got Advent plans ready to celebrate some prominent feast days along the way with crafts and baking along with adding to our Nativity, lighting our Advent candles and using our Advent calendar.

 

I suggested to my husband that we not put up our tree until Dec. 24th and he thought this was a crazy idea. I would like to put up the tree on Christmas Eve and then take it down on Epiphany. I would like to actually celebrate the 12 days of Christmas.

 

Do any of you do this? Do you have any ideas or traditions to share? My feeling is that if we don't go crazy for Christmas during Advent I'll have enthusiasm and energy to really celebrate Christmastide. Looking for advice and inspiration from anyone else who chooses to buck the modern trend of Christmas from All Saints Day to New Year's Day!

[Carol in Cal.]

We put up a lot of Christmas decorations for Advent, but also have at least 2-3 Advent calendars and Advent devotions. We don't put up the tree until the weekend before Christmas. Then we just put lights on it. On Christmas Eve we add the ornaments, presents, and Nativity scene. We open only one present on Christmas Eve. We have tons of candles around, and we go to Christmas Eve services. We sing Luke 2. Sometimes we also sing some prophesies from Isaiah.

 

On Christmas Day we open presents from the extended family. We also go to church again.

 

We spread out our other presents over the 12 days of Christmas, always saving a 'good one' for Epiphany. On New Year's Eve we celebrate Jesus' name. On New Year's Day we celebrate the Holy Innocents. On Epiphany we remember all of the ways that Jesus is shown to be God. We have lots of great Epiphany hymns to sing, all gorgeously theological--"As With Gladness Men of Old," "Brightest and Best of the Sons of the Morning", "Manifest", are the main ones. We never take the tree down until after Epiphany.

[Lily_Grace]

Come move here! The 12 days are still celebrated with mass and small community gatherings and then Belfana comes on Epiphany and leaves a gift. The night before all the Christmas trees are burned in a big bonfire in town square. :D

[KatieH]

We're also Catholic, and I'd really like to do the whole "put the tree up on the 24 and take it down on Epiphany" thing, but my dh, like yours, thinks that's insane. We usually compromise by putting it up on Dec 17 when the O Antiphons start (or as close to that as I can get him!)

 

I try to keep Advent and Christmas as separate as possible. We have a book of Catholic devotions that I really love that helps with that. It is really hard though, with our secular society pretty much ignoring Advent and being all Christmas all the time starting before flipping Halloween is even here :/

[WIS0320]

We're also Catholic, and I'd really like to do the whole "put the tree up on the 24 and take it down on Epiphany" thing, but my dh, like yours, thinks that's insane.

 

I'm not giving up, we'll see how long I can get DH to hold out this year!

[milovany]

We're Orthodox and we, too, celebrate the 12 Days of Christmas. We try to see the "advent" time as a time of preparation/solemnity with the 12 Days as the time to celebrate. This plays out different ways for different people. Many people in our parishes still put their trees up earlier than Christmas. We have had a handful of times where we waited until pretty close to Christmas -- a couple of times, until Christmas eve. I really like it when we do it it. It's counter cultural, but the excitement and joy and celebration of Christmas then starts on the 25th and goes for almost two weeks afterward. Last year was the first year (as Orthodox) that we did the best we could with this and really enjoyed it. But it can be hard with everything else working the opposite direction (for example, I have a good friend who traditionally has a huge cookie exchange party a couple weeks before Christmas; I'd love to go but because we're now wanting to remain in "preparation" mode at that point, not celebration mode, I don't -- well, that and because we're fasting from animal products until Christmas and it would be too hard! Instead, I had a cookie exchange -- different circle of friends -- sometime during the week after Nativity).

Edited November 25, 2011 by milovaný

[Alessandra]

We put our tree up a day or so before Christmas (especially if rain is forecast for Xmas Eve), but we do not decorate until Christmas Eve day.

 

It is much sweeter to have Christmas begin with the excitement of the new tree, rather than have something we have been looking at for a while. We keep it up through Epiphany.

 

But we put up out side lights earlier in December -- our nod to the rest of the world and to the weather, lol.

 

ETA We buy our tree earlier in Dec, as they are all cut & shipped at the same time. We keep it outside in water.

[Alessandra]

Come move here! The 12 days are still celebrated with mass and small community gatherings and then Belfana comes on Epiphany and leaves a gift. The night before all the Christmas trees are burned in a big bonfire in town square. :D

 

Is this Italy? Do you also have St Nicholas, or just Befana? I'd love to know more -- the bonfire sounds fantastic!

[milovany]

ETA We buy our tree earlier in Dec, as they are all cut & shipped at the same time. We keep it outside in water.

 

We hold off and buy ours nearer to Christmas (4-5 days out) -- a local nursery takes donations at this point and we can get a $60 tree for less than half that. But it's definitely a risk -- we could wait too long and she might not have any.

[BarbaraL in OK]

My husband and I have developed our observation of Advent, Christmas, the Twelve Days, and Epiphany over the years, as we've found what works for us.

 

During Advent we don't fast and we don't skip parties... instead we declutter (including outgrown toys & such) and "clear the decks" (putting away or getting rid of accumulated stuff), and have simple meals. We put up simple decorations: greenery, electric window candles, the kids' handmade decorations, kitchen towels, etc. We work on our Christmas cards/letter, gifts to be sent to relatives, baking, and family gifts. On the other hand, I enjoy all kinds of Christmas music as well as Advent music from Advent through Epiphany, because I can never have enough :)

 

We have an Advent wreath most years, and we light the candle(s) before dinner every evening we eat dinner at home, with some brief prayers. Our kids have always loved this. We refresh the greens sometime around Christmas so the wreath lasts into January. If we had a nativity set, we would put it up at the beginning of Advent without the Christ child.

 

In late Advent, 7-10 days before Christmas, we put up the tree and its lights and decorations. We coordinate taking the boys shopping for each other and for us. I lay in the final supplies for our Christmas holidays. We make sure to drive around and see Christmas lights, because very few will still be lit after Christmas morning.

 

I've wanted to host a Posada party the evening before Christmas Eve, but have never quite gotten it together. Maybe someday. (Mary & Joseph players go around the house, knocking on every door, asking for a room, and different people answer at each door and say there's no room, until the final door. Then they're invited in, and festivity ensues -- hot cocoa & cookies in our case, probably.)

 

Christmas Eve afternoon and evening are about both the church service and the mystery of Santa -- even though our kids no longer believe in Santa. We have a meatless (as it's the vigil eve of the feast day) yummy dinner after the early service, make cookies for dessert and Santa if we haven't yet, and watch a Christmas movie and Norad's Santa tracker website while I put together a baked Christmas breakfast dish. Later, my husband and I watch one of the midnight broadcasts of church services while I wrap gifts, and then put them under the tree and fill stockings before we head to bed. If we had a nativity set, we'd put the Christ child in it in the wee hours of Christmas Day, too.

 

Christmas Day is like the Christmases of my childhood: stockings! wake up parents! coffee for them... open gifts! eat some breakfast... play! and the mom spends some time in the kitchen on a late-day feast.

 

The day after Christmas is actually the birthday of one of my sons, so we have his choice of dinner, and homemade cake, ice cream, and birthday gifts :)

 

The rest of the Christmas season (the twelve days) we simply enjoy the holidays, each other, our lights and decorations and tree, and festive foods and music. If we're giving gifts to friends, we deliver them during the Twelve Days.

 

We throw a big Christmas party on the Twelfth Night of Christmas, Jan. 5, no matter what day of the week it happens to be. Lots of people are able to make it because their calendars are pretty open after Christmas. Our friends have gotten somewhat used to this "Twelfth Night of Christmas" idea, but we still end up explaining it to someone every year, which we don't mind :)

 

The weekend after Epiphany we take down and put away the majority of the festive stuff (I don't always get everything in one fell swoop). This is the transition to a simpler home for the rest of winter.

 

Edited to add: we're Episcopalian :)

Edited November 26, 2011 by BarbaraL in OK
Edited to add: we're Episcopalian :)

[Joyofsixreboot]

I put out nativity scenes and candles and we have an Advent calendar. We save the tree for Christmas Eve afternoon and go to church that night. We have our family gathering after Christmas. On Epiphany I put things away, the kids get a present, I make a King Cake and we chalk the door.

[VA6336]

I'm beginning to put out wintery stuff now (in previous years it's been a clear out and clean up time to prepare the house for the coming of the Lord but we just moved so there isn't anything to clear out!), but nothing St. Nicholas or Santa Claus shows up until the 6th of December. We do an Advent wreath during dinner and an open-the-doors calendar for the kids. Around the beginning of the O Antiphons we put up the tree with lights. On Christmas Eve we put on ornaments and other decorations. The Nativity usually comes out on Christmas Eve and by golly it stays up until the Baptism of the Lord (February!). The tree and Christmas things come down right after Epiphany. At our old house we put up out outdoor decorations the day after Thanksgiving but they didn't get turned on until the first Sunday of Advent. Our poor neighbors had to endure them all the way until Epiphany. :D

 

Good luck, OP! If you compromise on putting the tree up near the O Antiphons, maybe he'll compromise and allow it to stay up until Epiphany.

[BarbaraL in OK]

We have an Advent wreath most years, and we light the candle(s) before dinner every evening we eat dinner at home, with some brief prayers. Our kids have always loved this. We refresh the greens sometime around Christmas so the wreath lasts into January.

 

I completely forgot to mention that on Christmas morning, we put a white pillar candle in the center of our Advent wreath -- our Christ candle. We light it and all four Advent candles every evening we're home from Christmas Day until Epiphany. We use the same Christ candle on Easter Day and throughout the Easter season until Pentecost.

 

Just a simple thing, but really meaningful to us.

[Chris in VA]

My husband and I have developed our observation of Advent, Christmas, the Twelve Days, and Epiphany over the years, as we've found what works for us.

 

During Advent we don't fast and we don't skip parties... instead we declutter (including outgrown toys & such) and "clear the decks" (putting away or getting rid of accumulated stuff), and have simple meals. We put up simple decorations: greenery, electric window candles, the kids' handmade decorations, kitchen towels, etc. We work on our Christmas cards/letter, gifts to be sent to relatives, baking, and family gifts. On the other hand, I enjoy all kinds of Christmas music as well as Advent music from Advent through Epiphany, because I can never have enough :)

 

We have an Advent wreath most years, and we light the candle(s) before dinner every evening we eat dinner at home, with some brief prayers. Our kids have always loved this. We refresh the greens sometime around Christmas so the wreath lasts into January. If we had a nativity set, we would put it up at the beginning of Advent without the Christ child.

 

In late Advent, 7-10 days before Christmas, we put up the tree and its lights and decorations. We coordinate taking the boys shopping for each other and for us. I lay in the final supplies for our Christmas holidays. We make sure to drive around and see Christmas lights, because very few will still be lit after Christmas morning.

 

I've wanted to host a Posada party the evening before Christmas Eve, but have never quite gotten it together. Maybe someday. (Mary & Joseph players go around the house, knocking on every door, asking for a room, and different people answer at each door and say there's no room, until the final door. Then they're invited in, and festivity ensues -- hot cocoa & cookies in our case, probably.)

 

Christmas Eve afternoon and evening are about both the church service and the mystery of Santa -- even though our kids no longer believe in Santa. We have a meatless (as it's the vigil eve of the feast day) yummy dinner after the early service, make cookies for dessert and Santa if we haven't yet, and watch a Christmas movie and Norad's Santa tracker website while I put together a baked Christmas breakfast dish. Later, my husband and I watch one of the midnight broadcasts of church services while I wrap gifts, and then put them under the tree and fill stockings before we head to bed. If we had a nativity set, we'd put the Christ child in it in the wee hours of Christmas Day, too.

 

Christmas Day is like the Christmases of my childhood: stockings! wake up parents! coffee for them... open gifts! eat some breakfast... play! and the mom spends some time in the kitchen on a late-day feast.

 

The day after Christmas is actually the birthday of one of my sons, so we have his choice of dinner, and homemade cake, ice cream, and birthday gifts :)

 

The rest of the Christmas season (the twelve days) we simply enjoy the holidays, each other, our lights and decorations and tree, and festive foods and music. If we're giving gifts to friends, we deliver them during the Twelve Days.

 

We throw a big Christmas party on the Twelfth Night of Christmas, Jan. 5, no matter what day of the week it happens to be. Lots of people are able to make it because their calendars are pretty open after Christmas. Our friends have gotten somewhat used to this "Twelfth Night of Christmas" idea, but we still end up explaining it to someone every year, which we don't mind :)

 

The weekend after Epiphany we take down and put away the majority of the festive stuff (I don't always get everything in one fell swoop). This is the transition to a simpler home for the rest of winter.

 

Edited to add: we're Episcopalian :)

 

Oh.My.Goodness.

 

I have met my kindred spirit.

 

LOL--We do almost EXACTLY the same thing. :D

Dh is an Episcopal priest.

[Violet Crown]

We do many of the same things as the posters above, with a Twelfth Night party at the end. It would be nice to wait on the tree until Christmas Eve, but there aren't any left to buy that late* and if we buy it early and keep it outside, it gets very buggy. So we keep it inside but bare until Christmas Eve. Then Christmas tree trimming, lights, Christmas music, etc. for the next 12 days, plus all the lovely feast days in between!

 

 

*I've tried convincing the girls that if we waited one more day, we could have our pick of trees from the neighbors' curbs, some already with tinsel; but they haven't gone for it.

[BarbaraL in OK]

Oh.My.Goodness.

 

I have met my kindred spirit.

 

LOL--We do almost EXACTLY the same thing. :D

Dh is an Episcopal priest.

 

COOL!

I worked out a lot of my early thinking on my faith-at-home.com website, and this is how it worked out in real life for us :D

There are a lot of threads you respond to and I think, well gee, I can't really add anything now, lololol.

[Tigger]

While DH and I put the tree up shortly after Thanksgiving....I grew up with the tree magically appearing on Christmas morning - it was only as I got older that my parents would actually bring it in early in the day on Christmas eve and we'd be able to help decorate it -- before I was, probably, 10 or so, they'd put it up once we were in bed and we'd awake and there it was, all decorated and the presents under it, the stocking hung.....if we didn't have business entertaining to do, I'd still wait -- it was a great tradition with my family!

 

Oh and we did the 12 days of Christmas too - the tree came down the night of January 5th, before my parents went to bed. That evening we always had family over for dinner too for the Twelfth Night.