Merry “After-Christmas”
by Father Lawrence S. Brey
If you ever say “MERRY CHRISTMAS” a day or a week after Christmas, many will think you are strange, that you should rather be saying “HAPPY NEW YEAR.” But, my friend, “Merry Christmas” (or better, “Happy Christmas”) would be perfectly correct: not only on the day after Christmas, but even during the weeks after Christmas.
There is a Christian song which includes the line “Why does Christmas last only one day?” The fact is, Christmas lasts quite a bit longer than just one day. The CHRISTMAS SEASON indeed BEGINS with Christmas Day (or rather Christmas Eve), and last well into January and early February. Many mistakenly think that it begins in Advent and ends at the stroke of midnight on December 25th!
First of all there’s “CHRISTMAS WEEK”- the seven days within the Octave of Christmas, and leading up to the octave day, January 1st. It is a week-long holiday (or holy day), a week-long Christmas. Then there are the “TWELVE DAYS OF CHRISTMAS,” even longer than a week: 12 days of Christmas festivity commemorating special saints and feast and traditional customs. Hardly anyone hasn’t heard the popular carol, “The Twelve Days of Christmas.” These 12 days of Christmas are;
December 26th - Saint Stephen’s Day (the first martyr for the Infant King)
December 27th - Saint John the Evangelist & Apostle
December 28th - Holy Innocents Day (the baby boy martyrs slain by Herod)
December 29th - Saint Thomas of Canterbury (murdered in his cathedral at Christmas time)
December 30th – Within Christmas Octave
December 31st – Saint Sylvester & New Year’s Eve
January 1st – Feast of the Circuмcision & Octave of Christmas (New Years Day)
January 2nd –Holy Name of Jesus (or Sunday after January 1st) , Octave of Saint John
January 3rd – Octave of Saint John
January 4th – Octave of the Holy Innocents
January 5th - Octave of Saint Thomas of Canterbury and vigil of Epiphany
January 6th – The solemn feast of the EPIPHANY or Three Kings Day
Then there is the even more extensive liturgical season of “CHRISTMASTIDE,” from Christmas Eve through January 13th, the Octave of Epiphany. This season highlights January 1st, the Circuмcision and octave of Christmas, and January 6, the solemn feast of EPIPHANY, as well as the feasts of the Holy Name and Holy Family. Even a later period, the “Time after Epiphany” (from the Epiphany Octave to Septuagesima Sunday), yet contains echoes and twilights glimpse of the Christmas theme, though it is a transition period leading up to the prelude to Lent.
SO YOU SEE, it is perfectly normal to say “Merry Christmas” and play Christmas music even after Christmas day. For Christmas truly lasts for much more than one day. And rightly so, for it is the Birthday of the King of Kings.
AND NOW, HERE ARE SOME SUGGESTIONS for living the spirit of Christmas during the weeks after Christmas Day:
1. Surprise someone, and say “MERRY CHRISTMAS” on the day after Christmas and even a week or more later.
2. Suppress the urge to say “Happy New Year” on the day after Christmas. That can wait until January 1st, or at least December 31st.
3. Don’t rush to exchange unwanted gifts on the day after Christmas.
4. Sing Christmas carols during the post-Christmas weeks, and encourage radio stations to play them.
5. Perform some special “errands of mercy” those days after Christmas, such as visiting the sick, sharing your surplus Christmas “goodies” with some needy family or old folks.
6. Keep your Christmas tree up for a while yet; it’s a sign of the Living Christ, the Light of the World.
7. Observe the Twelve Days of Christmas in some special way; read the lives of the saints honored on those days; develop some family traditions for those days.
8. On the Octave of Christmas, January 1st re-live the spirit of Christmas day; and make a PRACTICAL New Year’s Resolution that you’ll KEEP.
9. Don’t be ashamed to send out Christmas cards even AFTER Christmas; it’s perfectly in order; and don’t feel hurt if you get a Christmas card after Christmas.
10. Observe EPIPHANY day (January 6th) in a special way. It’s also a day for gift-giving, after the example of the Three Kings. On this day, insert figures of the Three Kings into your Nativity display (By the way, keep your crib and Nativity scene up during the weeks after Christmas).
11. Encourage institutions and merchants to retain their nativity scenes and Christmas decorations for a reasonable time after Christmas (before rushing into the Valentine day decorations)!
12. Read the Christmas narrative in the Gospels; also read and think about Christ’s Holy Name (are you honoring it?) and Holy Family (is your family imitating it?), and His humble Childhood and Hidden Life at Nazareth .
13. AND MAYBE YOU can think of even more ways to keep Christmas in your lives and hearts not only during that holy season, but, in spirit, throughout the year.