Advent
Most of us make or buy Christmas gifts, decorate our homes, make goodies, and attend and throw parties in the three to four weeks before Christmas Day. The Christian liturgical season of Advent begins the fourth Sunday before Christmas Day, and traditionally is a season of anticipation and expectation in which we make preparations to welcome Christ at Christmas. We can focus on three ways Christ comes to us: long ago, as God incarnate in the baby Jesus in Bethlehem; today, in our lives and our hearts, to awaken us to Life; and someday, as Christ triumphant, redeeming the entire world and bringing history to a close. The Christian liturgical year begins with the first day of Advent.

Christmas
The celebration begins! Traditionally the church observance of Christmas and any other holy day could begin at sunset the previous evening; now many folks go to mass or other church services on Christmas Eve, often in lieu of attending on Christmas Day itself. In many of the traditions of Christmas we remember the tiny newborn baby Jesus and we acknowledge the amazing honor of God becoming incarnate, living among us as a human being. This is leavened with knowledge of the sorrow that came later, at the Crucifixion. My husband and I will also celebrate and remember our own joyful event: the birth of our son two years ago on the second day of Christmas.

The New Year
My family's tradition is to bang pots and pans outside our door at midnight, and, if your sweetheart is nearby, exchange a kiss. I think the root of the noisemaking is to scare away bad spirits or bad luck as the new year begins, a magical and mysterious time. There are many traditions linked with banishing bad luck, encouraging or ensuring good luck, or foretelling the future.

Epiphany
Epiphany is often thought of as the feast of the three kings. The kings or magi came from the east to honor the toddler Jesus with highly valuable gifts worthy of a king: gold, frankincense, and myrrh. Epiphany is the beginning of a different liturgical season (the "Season after Epiphany") that ends the night before Ash Wednesday, the beginning of Lent.

I found some explanations of Christmas greens and decorations, an odd lot of English Christmas customs, and Yule, the December festival of the winter solstice (about pre-Christian and non-Christian midwinter traditions).

Here's some background on and thoughts about All Saints to Advent, November 1 through the day before Christmas.

More about Advent

Lectionary readings, Season of Advent Traditional Bible readings for these days

The four Sundays of Advent are November 30, and December 7, 14, and 21. Sermons for those Sundays are Advent 1, Advent 2, Advent 3, and Advent 4, 1997

More about Christmas

Lectionary readings, Season of Christmas
Traditional Bible readings for these days

The two Sundays of Christmas are December 28 and January 4

By the way, I no longer mutter when I see "Xmas," now that I know that the Greek letter chi, which looks very much like a capital letter X, has been used for centuries to represent the name Christ.

More about the New Year

Twelfth Night (?)

More about Epiphany

followed by the Season After Epiphany, which ends February 24, 1998

Lectionary readings, season of Epiphany
Traditional Bible readings for these days