Originally presented on Sunday, December 18, 2016.

There’s a practice that happens here in the South that continues to surprise me every time I witness it. It’s the way that many people put their Christmas tree out at the curb for Trash collection ... on the day after Christmas! Have you ever noticed that yourself? This year, Christmas falls on Sunday. Mark my words, if you go out to visit family or friends on Monday .. you’ll see Christmas trees out at the curb ... the day after Christmas! Why? Why is that? Many people who do that, will probably tell you that they’re tired of it. I mean, they’ve had their tree up for something like 6 weeks ... and the needles were falling all over the place! How sad! You see, they’ve been fooled by this culture of ours that defines the Christmas Season as running from the day after Halloween until Christmas Day ... a total of 55 days! Now that’s enough to make anybody tired. But that’s not how the Church defines things. The Church defines the Christmas Season as running from Christmas Eve, which is the Vigil of Christmas, through the Baptism of Our Lord on Monday January 9th ... a total of just 17 days! That’s a mighty big difference in duration (55 days vs. 17 days) and an absolute difference in range ... with society counting all its days of the Christmas Season before Christmas, and the Church counting all its days of the Christmas Season after Christmas. So you see, those people, who put their trees out for the garbage on Dec. 26th ... will then go the remaining 16 days of the true Christmas Season, without a tree, without one of the central symbols of the Christ event.

Growing up in Chicago in a family of 5 kids, we always put our Christmas Tree up one week before Christmas. You see, then it was new, then it was fresh, then it meant Christmas. And then there was no problem leaving it up for the whole Christmas Season. We never took our Tree down until after the Feast of the Epiphany, also known as Little Christmas, which is celebrated on the first Sunday after January 1st. Certainly you know that the two most solemn Feast Days of the year are Christmas and Easter. They commemorate the two most significant events in all of history ... Jesus’ ... Incarnation and His Resurrection. The Church, in her wisdom, wants us to cherish these two most awesome mysteries as best we can ... and so ... She attaches Octaves to both of these events. An Octave is an eight-day period of celebration that includes the Feast itself and then the next 7 days following the feast. These 8 days are a time to rejoice and revel in all that has just taken place. It’s a time to savor and relish the wonder of all that has happened. So within the 17 days of the true Christmas Season, the first 8 days are celebrated as the Octave of Christmas. Within the Octave itself, we have the Feast of the Holy Family on the Friday after Christmas where we honor The Holy Family ... Jesus, Mary and Joseph. Then, on the last day of the Octave, we have the Feast of Mary, the Mother of God. It is celebrated on New Years Day, January 1st. This is where we honor Mary under the title of God Bearer, reverencing that her Son was truly human and truly divine. This day is a Holy Day of Obligation, which means that all Catholics are obliged to come to Mass on New Year’s Day or to a Vigil Mass on New Years Eve. Still within the 17 days of the Christmas Season, we have the Feast of the Epiphany on Sunday, January 8th ... which celebrates the manifestation of Jesus as King to the whole world. And finally, we celebrate the Feast of the Baptism of Our Lord on Monday, January 9th ... which brings the true Christmas Season to a close.

So realize there are two different forces tugging on your tree. Society is saying, “Enough already ... we’ve had it with Christmas ... let’s move on!” And the Church is saying, “Can we ever stop thanking God ... for the goodness He has shown in sending His Son to us?” Think about it! We’ve been created by a God who loves us so much ... that He sent His only Begotten Son to come and show us the way to Paradise! How could we ever stop celebrating the Christmas event? You know, when two people are planning to be married, they don’t celebrate for a month before the wedding. No, they have the wedding and then start the celebration. In Jesus’ day, wedding celebrations went on for a week or longer. Today it’s customary to have a Wedding Reception and then the couple goes off on a Honeymoon to bask in the wonder of their new married life. We Catholics do the same thing. We prepare ourselves the month before Christmas then we celebrate the Birth of Jesus on Christmas, December 25th ... and we continue that celebration for a good two weeks more!

Notice that we reverence this awesome event, the Birth of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ all year long ... each and every time we recite our Profession of Faith. So profound and so essential is the coming of Christ into our world that we give special reverence as we pray the words of our Creed that refer to His Incarnation. We bow as we say, “And by the Holy Spirit was incarnate of the Virgin Mary, and became man.” This reverences Christmas. It reverences the Incarnation ... God becoming Man! And when we recite our Creed at Christmas, we’ll genuflect when we say those words of the Creed to give additional homage to the Act of the Incarnation. Don’t let society tell you when Christmas is over ... listen to your Church. The Church tells us to pause and savor the magnificent mystery that we recognize took place in our world at Christmas... that God came to be with us, just as He promised. The Church wants us to revel in that Good News. The Church wants us to soak it in for all it’s worth. The 17 days after Christmas that comprise the Christmas Season, are intended to be days to just bask in the wonder of all that happened on that very First Christmas ... 2016 years ago! It was on that day that the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity took on human form and came to dwell among us. It was on that day that the Savior of Mankind arrived on Earth to redeem us.

It was on that day that the Angels sang, “Peace on earth ... good will to men!” So, for the remaining 6 days of the Advent Season, let’s prepare for Christ’s coming, and then savor the wonder of Christmas ... for the whole Christmas Season ... all the way to January 9th. Let’s contemplate the face of Baby Jesus for as many days as possible. Allow it to warm your heart and fill you with peace. Hopefully there will never be a time when you say, “Enough already... I’ve had it with Christmas ... let’s move on.” There’s really no where else we need to go. If we have Jesus, we have everything. He is the first and the last; He is the beginning and the end. He’s the reason for the Christmas Season!