5 Ways to Celebrate Christmas After Christmas

Laura Range shares ideas to keep the celebration going as a family through the full liturgical season of Christmas.

The world will be taking down decorations in a week, but we Catholics will just be getting started celebrating Christmas! Did you know the Church season of Christmas lasts from December 25th all the way through January 8th, the Sunday of the feast of Epiphany? We have over two weeks of celebrating the wild and wonderful gift of a God who wrapped Himself in flesh to come and save us.

Here are 5 ways your family can keep the Christmas spirit alive through the 14 days of Christmas this year!

1) If you haven't already baked Christmas cookies, delay that endeavor until after Christmas Day, perhaps during the week while your kids are on school break. Turn up the Christmas music, get out the sprinkles, and enjoy the sweetness of treats during the true Christmas season. Bonus if you share a plate with your neighbors! Another idea is to bake your goodies during Advent but put them in the freezer until Christmas Day and beyond—a difficult discipline for sure!

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2) If your area has a Christmas Lights at the Zoo exhibit, or other popular Christmas lights display, make a trip as a family to enjoy them. Afterwards, read Chapter 1 of the Gospel of John and talk about the ways you have seen Christ's light shine through any darkness in your year.

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3) Celebrate the Feast of the Holy Family (on December 30 this year) by writing a family mission statement to use for the new year. Keep it simple and let everyone chime in on what makes your family unique as well as the ways you want to grow in holiness together. An example might be: "The Smith family walks together on the way to heaven by speaking with kindness and truth, sharing our time and money with others, choosing trust over fear, and praying daily together."

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4) The feast of the Holy Innocents on December 28 remembers all the children who died when Herod ordered the death of infants and toddlers in Bethlehem in an attempt to kill the baby Jesus. A beautiful way to honor this feast would be to make one or two no-sew fleece baby blankets as a family (you can find simple instructions on the internet) and donate them to your local crisis pregnancy center.

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5) Receive the Sacraments together. The same God who came to earth as a baby now comes to us in the form of bread in the Sacrament of the Eucharist. He is Emmanuel ("God With Us") in every tabernacle in every Catholic Church. What better way to celebrate the Christmas season than by receiving His cleansing and forgiveness through the sacrament of Reconciliation and then going to Mass as a family (perhaps for one of the feast days mentioned above!) and receiving through Communion the very same Jesus who laid in the manger long ago.