If you’re hardcore Catholic for leaving your Christmas decorations up until the Baptism of our Lord, what are you if you leave your tree up deep into ordinary time? Super hardcore or just plain lazy?
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Lazy
Say I am hardcore to cover my laziness/ or say I am leaving the tree up so I can decorate it with Easter eggs.
Ha ha! This is a good one. I was just thinking the about it this morning as I looked out the kitchen window at our Christmas lights and decorations in the back yard. The lights (there and in the front) were on for the last time Sunday night, but the outdoor artificial tree and raindeer, and red bows are still up. One of the deer fell over last Saturday, obviously exhausted. His lights were still on as he rested flat on his side for the last two nights. Of course, I’m not in the least bit enthusiastic about going out in the cold to bring all this stuff back into storage. The indoor -real- tree is gradually being de-decorated but, at the moment is still there. Pat takes care of that so it is getting done; but, the outside stuff….
Bottom line: just plain lazy.
I like the Easter egg idea!
Mine’s still up. I’m thinking of trying to overcome my tendency to procrastinate this Lent and taking the tree down Ash Wednesday will be a good start.
At least that’s what I told my granddaughters. I don’t think they bought it.
My only rule is that it all has to be down by Ash Wednesday. As long as the tree is up, I get to continue to eat Christmas cookies as well. I also try to take down one thing per day, or put something away. Tonight the Christmas stockings go in the closet. Tomorrow, who knows. I try to wait for the Kings to get back to Babylon before taking down the manger scene. It’s a long trip. Not lazy….it’s just a “strategy.”
Actually, I just heard a priest say that, although The Baptism of the Lord is the official end of the Christmas Season, some people consider The Feast of the Presentation of the Lord in early February as the real end of the Season. So, if you’re a procrastinator, there’s more time for you.
This year, I had a TON of fun with the tree (I light it) and now it’s this very classy, pseudo-Victorian purple-and-white-lit tree with elegant ornaments. It’s so pretty that it’s still up. Beauty ought to be savoured and appreciated, right? Plus, you can see it when you pull into the driveway–it’s being shared!
I was just wondering, what happened to the Feast of the Holy Family?? I noticed it wasn’t celebrated in the NO, but Fr. B had a wonderful Mass and homily in the EF. I think our society really needs to celebrate this feast. With that said, we took down our tree on Sunday, but the outdoor lights are still up. They look so pretty in the dark days of winter.
it was celebrated, just not on a Sunday this year. Fr. A gave a good homily on it. Fr. Marty Moleski (who many know from the radio) has a pretty good web page on the Christmas season
http://moleski.net/cac/Christmas_season#Days_of_the_Catholic_Christmas_Season
Actually, his whole wiki is really cool – check it out.
Ben is right, Mary…the Feast of the Holy Family was celebrated on Friday, Dec. 30th. I think the two Feasts of Christmas and the Solemnity of Mary, both being on Sunday this year, switched the two other Feasts (The Holy Family on Dec. 30th and Baptism of the Lord on Jan. 9th) around that would normally be celebrated on the Sundays after Christmas.