Artwork by Steffi Andrat Faria
It’s Christmas night — December 25 — and young Claire is sad that Christmas, with all its joy and excitement, is over. Or is it?
As several miraculous visitors take Claire on a journey through time and space, she learns that the ancient observance of the Twelve Days of Christmas, or Christmastide, are much more exciting and meaningful than she ever dreamed.
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LEARN MORE: In the increasingly secular West, and in Christian communities which have moved away from the historic Church calendar, too often lost is the ancient observance of the season of Advent leading up to the beginning of Christmas on December 25 and the 12-day celebration of Christmastide, culminating with the Feast of Epiphany, or Three Kings Day, on January 6.
Similar to the 40-day Easter season, since its early centuries the Church has seen fit to continue its celebration of Christ’s Nativity longer than the single day Christmas has become for many, and nestled within that season are several ancient, important, and widely-celebrated feasts. Some of these relate to the themes of the season, such as the Feast of Christmastide / the Twelve Days of Christmas the Holy Innocents, those young boys martyred under King Herod in his zeal to prevent the rise of the coming Messiah (Dec. 28); or the Jan. 1 Solemnity of Mary, the Mother of God (a revision of the ancient Feast of the Circumcision, also long known as the Holy Name of Jesus, for the ancient Jewish practice of giving baby boys their name and circumsizing them 8 days after their birth), to name a few.
The story in this book aims to reconnect the meaning and centrality of Christmastide and its related feasts for families and children, with the hope that reviving their observance and, ideally, many traditions and practices associated with them will help rebuild a robust and joyful Christian culture for the good of all.