Christmastide: The real Twelve Days of Christmas

Christmastide (also the Christmas season) is a season of the liturgical year. The season starts at sunset on December 24th (Christmas Eve) and ends on January 3th (the day before Epiphany). The season’s colour is white.

We see, at the same time, what sort of beginning the life of the Son of God had, and in what cradle he was placed. Such was his condition at his birth, because he had taken upon him our flesh for this purpose, that he might “empty himself” (Phil 2:7) on our account. When he was thrown into a stable, and placed in a manger, and a lodging refused him among men, it was that heaven might be opened to us, not as a temporary lodging, but as our eternal country and inheritance, and that angels might receive us into their abode.
John Calvin, Harmony of the Evangelists, on Luke 2:1-7

Readings

Christmas
Year B		 First reading Psalm Second reading Gospel
Nativity of the Lord – Proper I
December 24 & 25, 2022
Christmas Eve, Morn, or Mid-Day
ART — PRAYER		 Isaiah 9:2-7 Psalm 96 Titus 2:11-14 Luke 2:1-14, (15-20)
Nativity of the Lord – Proper II
December 24 & 25, 2022
Christmas Eve, Morn, or Mid-Day
ART — PRAYER		 Isaiah 62:6-12 Psalm 97 Titus 3:4-7 Luke 2:(1-7), 8-20
Nativity of the Lord – Proper III
December 24 & 25, 2022
Christmas Eve, Morn, or Mid-Day
ART — PRAYER		 Isaiah 52:7-10 Psalm 98 Hebrews 1:1-4, (5-12) John 1:1-14
First Sunday after Christmas Day
January 1, 2023
ART — PRAYER		 Isaiah 61:10-62:3 Psalm 148 Galatians 4:4-7 Luke 2:22-40
Holy Name of Jesus
January 1, 2023
(Mary, Mother of God)
ART — PRAYER		 Numbers 6:22-27 Psalm 8 Galatians 4:4-7
or
Philippians 2:5-11		 Luke 2:15-21
New Year’s Day
January 1, 2023
ART — PRAYER		 Ecclesiastes 3:1-13 Psalm 8 Revelation 21:1-6a Matthew 25:31-46
Second Sunday after Christmas Day
Not Observed This Year
ART — PRAYER		 Jeremiah 31:7-14
or
Sirach 24:1-12		 Psalm 147:12-20
or
Wisdom of Solomon 10:15-21		 Ephesians 1:3-14 John 1:(1-9), 10-18
Italicized readings, complementary to the standard reading, may be used with, or in place of it.

Sources

  • JESUS MAFA is a response to the New Testament readings from the Lectionary by a Christian community in Cameroon, Africa. Each of the readings was selected and adapted to dramatic interpretation by the community members. Photographs of their interpretations were made, and these were then transcribed to paintings.
  • Lectionary from The Vanderbilt Divinity Library