Utah Free Press

The End of Christmas

By Richard Okelberry (Note: This essay was originally published at KVNU’s, For the People Blog.)

I love Christmas!  I love Christmas so much that when I proposed to my wife, I surprised her with a Christmas Tree complete with presents and music one early November day.  The ring was hidden in a pocket of a jacket which was one of the presents I gave her.  While I always try to focus on the birth of Christ around Christmas, I must say that I truly do love all the lights and decorations that surround the season.  While even I can be dismayed in late October when certain stores begin decorating for the season, I am always just a little disappointed when people immediately begin removing their decorations and turning off lights just days after the 25th of December.  If you have ever wondered exactly what the traditional time span for decorating over the holidays is, I have the answers for you.

In short, Christmas decorations traditionally go up on the 4th Sunday proceeding Christmas and come down 12 days after on “Little Christmas.”  If the 12 days sounds familiar it’s because the famed 12 Days of Christmas doesn’t proceed, but actually follows Christmas.  You see Christmas is part of what is called the Christian Church Calendar or Liturgical Year.

Following in Jewish traditions, the early Christian churches established several seasons for celebration, worship and reflection.  I should note that these seasons may vary slightly from faith to faith but most liturgical faiths follow the core calendar.  If you belong to a liturgical church you are probably very familiar with this calendar.  If not, I should explain that this Christian Church Calendar begins with Advent which leads to Christmas then Epiphany.  The rest of the year may sound failure also; Lent, Holy Week, Easter, Pentecost and Ascension with the rest of the year dedicated to what is called Ordinary (Ordinal) Time.  While the labeled seasons each focus on different points in the birth, life, death and resurrection of Jesus, Ordinary Time usually focuses primarily on doctrine.

For those not failure with the Christian Church Calendar, I will focus on what this essay is primarily about, the Christmas season which includes Advent, Christ’s Mass (Christmas) and the often forgotten Epiphany.  Advent begins on the fourth Sunday before Christmas day and ends Christmas Eve day with Christmas Eve beginning at sundown.  It is a time when congregants hear and celebrate the events leading to the birth of Christ.  Christmas Eve and Christmas are easy.  They are the actual celebration of his birth and are traditionally marked by the Feast of the Nativity.  This Christmas dinner is where Christmas seems to end for many people.  But what about Epiphany?

Though it has lost much of its luster over the decades, Epiphany marks the end of the Christmas celebration on January 6th which is also known, especially in Europe as Three Kings Day.  In years past the gifts were given on each of the 12 days following Christmas.  Then a second celebration would occur on Epiphany marking the end of the season.  The traditions surrounding this celebration are wide and varied but often culminated in the giving of final gifts, a feast and the baking of The Kings Cake.  The tradition of the Kings Cake to celebrate the birth of Christ is likely the reason we bake birthday cakes today.

While the tradition of decorating a home is truly just symbolic of the season, I personally like to maintain some of these older traditions by keeping my decorations up until Epiphany on the 6th of January.  In fact, now that we have small children, my wife and I have decided to give small gifts to our kids in recognition of Epiphany this year as well as help them make a donation to the needy.  Also, we will be baking a cake as a family to say farewell to the Christmas season for another year.

On New Year’s Day tomorrow, many people will shut off their lights and begin dismantling their plastic rain deer and blow up Santa’s.  We Okelberry’s will likely be one of the few on our block that still have our lights brightly glowing for a few more days.  So please don’t think we are crazy and just unwilling to let go of Christmas.  We are merely trying to keep some of the traditions of Christmas alive, for it is a season that we truly love and would like to preserve.  I hope that others of all different faiths and beliefs who love as we do the traditions of Christmas would join us in remembering the 12 days of Christmas.