• Skip to main content
  • Skip to secondary menu
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
Catholic Review

Catholic Review

Inspiring the Archdiocese of Baltimore

Menu
  • Home
  • News
        • Local News
        • World News
        • Vatican News
        • Obituaries
        • Featured Video
        • En Español
        • Sports News
        • Official Clergy Assignments
        • Schools News
  • Commentary
        • Contributors
          • Question Corner
          • George Weigel
          • Effie Caldarola
          • John Garvey
          • Father Ed Dougherty, M.M.
          • Guest Commentary
        • CR Columnists
          • Archbishop William E. Lori
          • Rita Buettner
          • Christopher Gunty
          • George Matysek Jr.
          • Father Joseph Breighner
          • Father Collin Poston
          • Robyn Barberry
          • Hanael Bianchi
          • Amen Columns
  • Entertainment
        • Events
        • Movie & Television Reviews
        • Arts & Culture
        • Books
        • Recipes
  • About Us
        • Contact Us
        • Our History
        • Meet Our Staff
        • Photos to own
        • Books/CDs/Prayer Cards
        • CR Media platforms
        • Electronic Edition
  • Advertising
  • Shop
        • Purchase Photos
        • Books/CDs/Prayer Cards
  • CR Radio
  • News Tips
  • Subscribe
St. Lucy’s Day is celebrated with delicious baked goods, using the finest ingredients. (CR file)

Five ways to pandemic-proof your Christmas

December 5, 2020
By Tim Swift
Catholic Review
Filed Under: #IamCatholic, Advent, Christmas, Feature, Local News, News, Uncategorized

This year, there is a new Grinch ready to steal Christmas and its name is COVID-19.

And the bad news for us is that this Grinch, being a microscopic virus and all, doesn’t even have the heart to grow three sizes.

The Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade in New York City has been canceled. Santa won’t be doing many in-person visits. And the holiday office party will be even more awkward than usual now that it will be on Zoom.

Yes, it’s true that the coronavirus pandemic will upend many of our most cherished Christmas activities, but this trying time is a good one in which to rediscover some often-overlooked Christmas traditions that are perfect for our socially distant age.

Dust off Advent wreath

Advent wreaths are a way of anticipating Christmas with the whole family. (CR file)

Catholics often bemoan the commercialization of Christmas, but shopping will look very different this year. Many stores have actually decided to remain closed Thanksgiving Day, reversing a trend years in the making. It could be easier than ever to put the focus on the baby Jesus over a secular Santa this year.

Consider adding an Advent wreath to your home and lighting it before dinner. The four candles, lit on each of the four Sundays of Advent, represent hope, peace, joy and love. Advent starts Sunday, Nov. 29, and, of course, ends Christmas Eve, Thursday, Dec. 24. Traditionally, Catholics say a special prayer before each candle is lit.

St. Nicholas Day

An old Catholic tradition is setting out shoes to be filled with treats the night before the feast of St. Nicholas, an inspiration for our modern Santa Clause. (Kevin J. Parks/CR Staff)

With a visit to Santa off the table for many families, the feast of St. Nicholas could be another way to keep children in the Christmas spirit (i.e., in line; that elf-on-the-shelf can only do so much).

Celebrated Dec. 6, this feast honors St. Nicholas of Myra, a second-century Greek bishop who was renowned for his generosity. St. Nicholas, or St. Nick, was the forerunner to Santa Claus. Catholics can celebrate St. Nicholas on his feast day by setting out their shoes the night before. When children (and some adults) go retrieve their footwear, they find them filled with treats, coins or small gifts.

St. Lucy Day

Catholics celebrate the feast of St. Lucy Dec. 13. She was an early Christian martyr in the Roman empire. While the stories about her life vary, most say Lucy was blinded and executed after she was outed as a Christian. A virgin, she chose to devote her life to Jesus and refused to marry. Because her feast often coincided with the shortest day of the year, St. Lucy Day became a festival of light in many Nordic countries. Her name literally means light; she is the patron saint of the blind.

Modern celebrations of St. Lucy Day are especially popular in Sweden and in the American Midwest. Young girls dress up as the saint, wearing a white dress with a red sash and crown of candles. While St. Lucy was no princess, the chance for dress-up should appeal to many little girls. A quick internet search yields instructions on how to create (nonflammable) St. Lucy crowns out of construction paper.

Also, from Scandinavia to Italy, St. Lucy’s Day is celebrated with delicious baked goods, using the finest ingredients. Home bakers who have been refining their skills during the pandemic can try their hand at making lussekatter or St. Lucia Buns. These s-shaped rolls are infused with saffron; some bakers place raisins inside the swills to symbolize Lucy’s eyes.

Take a Christmas drive

Christmas lights are on display every year in Hampden. (CR file)

From drive-through confession to drive-in movies, car-based activities are experiencing a plague-induced renaissance. Taking a drive and seeing the best of Baltimore’s Christmas lights will be a fairly safe activity for the whole family.

Baltimore, the home of the Miracle on 34th Street in Hampden, loves a spectacular (if slightly tacky) Christmas light display. The lights in Hampden are on again this year, according to an organizers’ website, although some are discouraging people from visiting because of the coronavirus pandemic.

Starting Dec. 11, Timonium’s Church of the Nativity will transform its sprawling campus into an illuminated winter wonderland complete with – what else? – a Nativity scene. The light display will kick off with a charity drive Dec. 11-12. Consider dropping off gifts for Baltimore families in need before taking in the sights.

Keep the holiday season going

The pandemic could put a serious damper on Christmas, so why cut the celebration short? For Catholics, the feast of the Epiphany comes Jan. 6, 12 days after Christmas Day, and is of special significance. The feast celebrates the three Wise Men paying their Biblical visit to the baby Jesus. The Wise Men or “kings” famously gave the holy family gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh.

Your Epiphany gift will be less valuable but much tastier because the feast is celebrated with – surprise – a feast. A King Cake or Rosca de Reyes is a must for the feast of the Epiphany.

Popularized by Mardi Gras celebrations in New Orleans, king cakes make a little more sense in this context. The tiny plastic baby figurines hidden inside the cakes represent the baby Jesus at the Epiphany and finding one is considered a blessing. Epiphany king cakes usually just have one baby while the Mardi Gras version unsurprisingly goes a little overboard.

A family blesses its home in 2020 with chalk on the feast of the Epiphany. (CR file)

In some cultures, finding the baby also means another party a month later on Candlemas Day (Feb. 2), but there’s a slight catch: you are the host.

Also, who says the Christmas lights have to come down Jan. 2? The Epiphany marks another opportunity to light up the neighborhood with luminaria, small candles placed in bags with sand. They often line the pathway to a Catholic’s front door.

And tradition doesn’t end there, you can chalk your front door with the “20 + C + M + B + 21.” Say what? “C+M+B” represents the Latin phrase “Christus mansionem benedicat”: “May Christ bless the house” combined with the current year. The letters also represent the legendary names of the magi – Caspar, Melchior and Balthazar – although they are not mentioned by name in Scripture.

After the 2020 we have had, we think no one would want to miss the chance to ask Jesus to bless their home for 2021.

Also see

RADIO INTERVIEW: The Holy Family

Continue contemplating the mystery of Christmas, pope urges

Priest weathers Christmas blizzard on fireboat celebrating Mass for two

Parishioners at Ss. Philip and James weather cold snap with Christmas spirit

Ukrainian archbishop urges people to celebrate Christmas even amid war

Jesus’ birth is not ‘fairy tale,’ but call to live the Gospel, pope says

Copyright © 2020 Catholic Review Media

Print Print

Primary Sidebar

Tim Swift

Tim Swift is a former social media coordinator for the Catholic Review and the Archdiocese of Baltimore. Covering everything from pop culture to politics to religion to errant alligators, Tim has worked as a reporter and editor for The Baltimore Sun, BBC News and Local 10 News in South Florida. A native of Philadelphia, Tim grew up attending Catholic schools and got his start in journalism as the editor of The Prelate, Cardinal Dougherty High School's student newspaper. He earned a bachelor’s degree from Penn State. After a few years away, Tim is glad to be back in his adopted hometown of Baltimore.

View all posts from this author

For the latest news delivered twice a week via email or text message, sign up to receive our free enewsletter.

| MOST POPULAR |

  • Pathfinders: Five Archdiocese of Baltimore women who made history
  • Fire guts historic Catholic school in parish connected to St. John Neumann
  • RADIO INTERVIEW: Dining with the Saints
  • Suspect pleads not guilty in murder of LA Auxiliary Bishop O’Connell
  • Movie Review: ‘John Wick: Chapter 4, a festival of fatality’

| Latest Local News |

Catholic Charities’ William J. McCarthy Jr. named Loyola’s Business Leader of the Year

Sister Joan Cooper, O.S.F., dies at 94

Pathfinders: Five Archdiocese of Baltimore women who made history

| Latest World News |

National Eucharistic Revival aims to form disciples on mission with new Easter series

Laws, lawsuits and adult involvement needed to save kids from social media ‘harm,’ say experts

Confession is ‘encounter of love’ that fights evil, pope tells priests

| Catholic Review Radio |

CatholicReview · Catholic Review Radio

Footer

Our Vision

Real Life. Real Faith. 

Catholic Review Media communicates the Gospel and its impact on people’s lives in the Archdiocese of Baltimore and beyond.

Our Mission

Catholic Review Media provides intergenerational communications that inform, teach, inspire and engage Catholics and all of good will in the mission of Christ through diverse forms of media.

Contact

Catholic Review
320 Cathedral Street
Baltimore, MD 21201
443-524-3150
mail@CatholicReview.org

 

Social Media

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Twitter
  • YouTube

Recent

  • National Eucharistic Revival aims to form disciples on mission with new Easter series
  • Confession is ‘encounter of love’ that fights evil, pope tells priests
  • Laws, lawsuits and adult involvement needed to save kids from social media ‘harm,’ say experts
  • Praying for healing for our pet
  • Jérôme Lejeune’s legacy advances ‘abundant life’ for people with Down syndrome in world and church
  • Texas parishioners affected by Ukrainian war, a wildfire have relied on faith, community to survive turmoil
  • Pope, World Council of Churches’ leaders talk about war, divisions
  • Pre-Vatican II Mass was formed by ‘clericalization,’ says papal preacher
  • Memorial to modern Christian martyrs opens in Rome

Search

Membership

Catholic Press Association of the United States and Canada

Maryland-Delaware-DC Press Association

The Associated Church Press

© 2023 CATHOLIC REVIEW MEDIA, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED