What Christmas is
Christmas — the feast of the Nativity of the Lord — celebrates the central wonder of the faith: that the eternal God was born as a child of the Virgin Mary. The Word through whom all things were made is laid in a manger; omnipotence arrives as an infant. The Church clothes the feast in white and gold, the colours of light and glory.
In the Church’s reckoning Christmas is not a single day but a season. It runs from Christmas Day through the feast of the Baptism of the Lord in January — the ‘Twelve Days of Christmas’ and beyond — and includes the great feast of the Epiphany, the manifestation of Christ to the nations in the persons of the Magi.
The chant of Christmas
The song of Christmas morning is Puer Natus Est Nobis — ‘Unto us a Child is born’ — the introit of the Mass of Christmas Day, drawn from the prophet Isaiah. As the ministers approach the altar the choir sings the prophecy in the present tense: the long-awaited word has become an event.
Around it gather the carols and hymns of the Nativity — Adeste Fideles, ‘O Come All Ye Faithful,’ and the medieval Puer Natus settings — all of them turning the same wonder over and over: God with us, Emmanuel.
How to keep it
Keep the whole season, not only the day. The crib or Nativity scene, the Twelve Days, and the feast of the Epiphany are the Church’s way of letting the wonder last. Christmas rewards those who begin to celebrate when the world has stopped.
Last reviewed for accuracy on , against the Douay-Rheims Bible and the Church's own documents.