Keeping Christmastide

Here it is—your friendly annual reminder that the 12 Days of Christmas (also called “Christmastide”) starts rather than ends on December 25. That’s right…God becoming flesh is such a big deal that in 567, the church saw fit to declare 12 full days of feasting and celebration to mark the occasion. Christmastide ends with Epiphany on January 6, commemorating the late arrival of the magi to the Christ child (which perhaps didn’t happen until Jesus was a toddler, but that’s a story for another time).

So how do we continue to celebrate the good news of God with us once everyone else has already moved on to New Year’s? Here are 12 practical ways to keep the party going through the 12 Days of Christmas.

1. Keep up those Christmas decorations! In fact, add to them. Each day, add one ornament to the tree. We made dried oranges to represent Jesus, the “Sun of God” and Light of the World, and we’ll add one to the tree each day.

2. Bake Christmas cookies—stars are perfect to represent the star the magi are following during Christmastide.

3. Traveling wise men. Our magi make a slow journey from one side of the house to the nativity scene. Each night, they move and the kids get a kick out of finding them in the morning. Like our own, non-creepy, Elf on the Shelf ;)

4. Watch Christmas movies in your Christmas pajamas—guilt free, because it’s still Christmas and you’re allowed to.

5. Leave some gifts under the tree to open during the 12 days.

6. Celebrate or learn about some of the saints days during Christmastide. The feast of St. Stephen on December 26 is a great place to start!

7. Invite friends and neighbors over for a “Friend’s Christmas”—like Friendsgiving, but for Christmas.

8. Turn up the Christmas music—if they can start playing it in November, then you can keep listening to it in January ;)

9. Light your “Advent” wreath! Transform your Advent wreath into a Christmas wreath by replacing the purple and pink with all white, and lighting them each night of Christmas. Or replace it with a single white pillar candle as your “Christ candle.”

10. Keep saying Merry Christmas long after it’s socially acceptable ;)

11. Take a drive to look at Christmas lights—just make sure to do it before New Year’s, or you’ll miss a lot of them!

12. Have a Twelfth night celebration. On January 5, take down the Christmas tree and have a big bonfire with one last chance to sing Christmas carols. Serve King’s cake to celebrate the arrival of the three kings.

Wishing you and yours a Merry Christmastide!

Michaelmas and Guardian Angels

September 29 is Michaelmas (Michael + mass just like Christ + mass = Christmas), the feast of St. Michael and All Angels. If I’m being completely honest, angels are an elusive topic to me that I rarely think about because reading Revelation weirds me out a little bit.

But this year Amelia is attending a Catholic school and she’s had to memorize The Guardian Angel prayer, a classic for Catholics. I’ll admit, I had my qualms with it at first: the rhyming felt kitschy (jokes on me—it was actually written by a monk in the 11th century) and directing prayers to an angel upset my Protestant sensibilities (we can discuss that another time). Nonetheless, Amelia had to learn it, so we taped it to the door and read it each morning before she left for school.

And you know what? Reciting that prayer day after day changed something in me. That small act of praying so directly for God’s angels to protect my five year old before I send her out the door each morning eased anxieties I didn’t even know I had. Anxieties about her safety, about her not making friends, about whether or not the friends she made would be good ones, and—if I’m being honest—about her being the victim of another school shooting. I’m an Enneagram Six, and worst case scenarios are constantly flashing in my mind.

But reciting that prayer every morning became an act of holding those fears and worst case scenarios up to God and releasing them. It’s a reminder that when Amelia walks out our door, she is in God’s hands, that I am in God’s hands, and that this whole crazy and sometimes terrifying world is, too.

So this Sunday, I’m going to suck it up and read Revelation 12 and be reminded once again that in the battle between God’s angels and the forces of evil, God wins. Always. And then we are going to keep praying that little prayer each morning even though we don’t have to anymore.

If you’d like a copy, you can download it here. I even wrote a Protestant version for all my kindred spirits.

And if you’d like resources on celebrating Michaelmas, I recommend this Step-by-Step guide as well as this post on Michaelmas Traditions by Haley Stewart, who runs a blog called…wait for it….Carrots for Michaelmas.

Happy Michaelmas!

Christmas Pageant 2018