Celebrations of December: Christmas Eve

Our longstanding family tradition has been to give gifts on Christmas Eve. However, in recent years our Christmas Eve obligations at church have pushed our family time back further and further, until this year, we just began straightaway in the morning with stockings! It’s been several years since Paul first had the genius idea to give kazoos to all the cousins for Christmas, and they are all long gone, so I thought it was time to bring back the fun – also found some adorable mini maracas I couldn’t resist, and jingle bell necklaces to complete the musical festivity of the morn.

After breakfast and cleanup, we gathered in the living room for a reading of the Christmas story, followed by the Great Unwrapping, Part I. Oh the joys of imitating our Heavenly Father by giving good gifts to our children!! (check captions!)

Two things I want to link for those who might be interested: Our friend Jenni Groft makes beautiful rosaries, and crafted the rosary bracelets I gave the girls. Check out her Etsy store, Tools of Grace . And Jacob’s rosary is the Church Militant Combat Rosary, an excellent, masculine choice for active men, whether young or not-so-young.

Once we’d cleaned up all our boxes and paper from the morning, we had a short break in the action before a bunch of our Gonzales family came over, and we had lunch and more Christmas fun with them.

Finally, after all the revelry, it was time to get ready for the Main Event — Christmas Eve Vigil Masses!! It was glorious, just glorious, to worship at 6 and again at the Midnight mass. So worth not getting to bed until nearly 2am!

The order for the Midnight Mass:

Prelude I: Kyrie de la Messe de Noël
C. Franck (1822-1890, Belgium)

Prelude II: Angels We Have Heard on High
GLORIA, French Tune

Prelude III: Dixit Maria
H.L. Hassler (1564-1612, Germany)

Dixit Maria ad angelum: Ecce ancilla Domini, fiat mihi secundum verbum tuum.
Mary said to the Angel: Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord, let it be done to me, according to your word.

Preulde IV: In the Bleak Midwinter
G. Holst (1874-1934, England)

Prelude V: God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen
GOD REST YE, English tune

Prelude VI: Silent Night
STILLE NACHT, Austrian tune

Prelude VII: O Come All Ye Faithful
ADESTE FIDELIS, English tune

The Proclamation of the Birth of Christ
Traditional Chant

The Twenty-fifth Day of December, when ages beyond number had run their course from the creation of the world,
when God in the beginning created heaven and earth, and formed man in his own likeness;
when century upon century had passed since the Almighty set his bow
in the clouds after the Great Flood, as a sign of covenant and peace;
in the twenty-first century since Abraham, our father in faith, came out of Ur of the Chaldees;
in the thirteenth century since the People of Israel were led by Moses in the Exodus from Egypt;
around the thousandth year since David was anointed King;
in the sixty-fifth week of the prophecy of Daniel; in the one hundred and ninety-fourth Olympiad;
in the year seven hundred and fifty-two since the foundation of the City of Rome;
in the forty-second year of the reign of Caesar Octavian Augustus, the whole world being at peace,
Jesus Christ, eternal God and Son of the eternal Father,
desiring to consecrate the world by his most loving presence, was conceived by the Holy Spirit,
and when nine months had passed since his conception, was born of the Virgin Mary in Bethlehem of Judah,
and was made man: The Nativity of Our Lord Jesus Christ according to the flesh.