Catholics Don't Celebrate Christmas!

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AmberDale

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Okay now listen to this. I was out to dinner with my husband during Advent. We ran into my old pastor (protestant, I’ll be baptized Catholic on Easter), his wife and a couple members of my old church. I was talking with them to see how they were. They asked when I was going to bring the new baby in to be dedicated. I told them rather excitedly that I would be baptized on Easter into the Catholic church. And the children would be baptized Catholic also. Then things changed. They started preaching to me about praying TO Mary and the saints. I rather patietly explained to them we pray for them to pray for us. When you ask Jimmy to pray for you, it’s the same thing, only the saints are in heaven already. I was told, but Catholics don’t celebrate Christmas. I was like what! Where did you hear that. We celebrate Christmas for like 4 weeks (Advent). Of course we celebrate Christmas. I think your thinking of Jewish people, who celebrate Hanakua (spelling sorry).
Am I the only person who has never heard that Catholics don’t celebrate Christmas?
 
First I’ve heard of it. But ask them this. Santa is St. Nicholas, who else do you know that names the Saints in heaven? 😃

Irish icons added for fun:
:irish2:
:irish1:
☘️

John
 
I’ve never heard of that myself… It seems quite strange.

But I would say that Catholics do not celebrate Christmas during Advent. We celebrate Advent during Advent. It is a time of preparation to welcome the baby Jesus into our homes, much as Lent is a time of preparation, not a celebration of Easter.

Catholics celebrate Christmas during the Christmas season, which begins at Christmas and continues for several weeks.

Did he ever mention why he thought we don’t celebrate Christmas? Is he confused because of Advent?
 
Never thought to bring up St. Nicholas. Good point.

My husband, who was raised Catholic, was completely taken aback. He still randomly brings it up. It really bothered him. In all my years as a non-catholic (only 23 but still) I never heard such nonsense, until I converted.
 
Thanks for the news, I’ll have to let my Priest, and entire congregation know not to keep showing up at midnight mass…:rolleyes:

What will they think of next?
 
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ElizabethAnne:
Catholics celebrate Christmas during the Christmas season, which begins at Christmas and continues for several weeks.

Did he ever mention why he thought we don’t celebrate Christmas? Is he confused because of Advent?
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That’s what I meant, not advent. I am new to this and got it mixed up. I never told him advent. So sorry. Advent is before hand, Christmas is what 3 weeks? I didn’t mean Advent. Dang now I look odd.
No never said why he thought this. I didn’t stay long 'cuz I was trying to get food for the 2 year old (it was buffet) and I could hear him getting mad.
I’ll have to ask if I remeber when I see him again
 
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AmberDale:
Never thought to bring up St. Nicholas. Good point.

My husband, who was raised Catholic, was completely taken aback. He still randomly brings it up. It really bothered him. In all my years as a non-catholic (only 23 but still) I never heard such nonsense, until I converted.
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People think the oddest things.

Oh, and WELCOME HOME! That is so awesome that you are officially going to be in the Church! 👍 :clapping:
 
Thanks so much. It feels good to know what is Truth now. But it also irks me to start hearing, or maybe start paying attention to the lies people say about the Church.

I just don’t get it. Maybe I’m naive.
 
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AmberDale:
Am I the only person who has never heard that Catholics don’t celebrate Christmas?
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I can think of two possible reasons for such confusion, though confusion this clearly is.
  1. The Puritans didn’t celebrate Christmas. This historical tidbit may somehow have become garbled in your friends mind or understanding.
  2. The Church does not claim, and never has claimed, that Christ was born on December 25th. Instead this is merely the customary date on which the Church celebrates his birth. The Church could have chosen any other date for this purpose. So the Church doesn’t technically celebrate Christmas as the “anniversary” of Christ’s birth. But it does celebrate Christmas in memory of Christ’s birth. The same applies to all Christians who celebrate Christmas on December 25th, so this is not an explicitly Catholic peculiarity.
Irenicist
 
Funny, the word Christmas comes from “Christ’s Mass”. Hmm, don’t Catholics celebrate Mass?
 
Balderdash! Your former minister doesn’t know his history. I am an Anglican Catholic right now who may join you in Roman Catholcism. As something of a historian myself until the American Civil War nationally we did not celebrate Christmas. In fact on Christmas Day Congress and the Senate met to conduct normal business for 76 years after our country was founded largely as a protestant country. In fact Roman Catholic and Episcopalian (Anglican Catholicism in the USA at least back then) did celibrate Christmas not in July like we do as a nation today. During the dead of winter the government rediscoved that it might be a good idea to have a holiday and it was recognized that the Roman Catholics and Anglican Catholics seemed to have a good thing going with celebrating Christmas. Even so for all Catholic faiths as important as Christmas has become Easter is really the more important holiday as Easter represents the fulfillment of the promise to not only send us a savior but for that savior to save us miserable sinners who are not worthy to so much as gather up the crumbs under His table.

Its pure bunkum that we do not celebrate Christmas but the most important holiday is Easter where we commemorate the Passion of our Savior and lord Jesus Christ. I was told by one of my chemists, I own a chemical company, that we Episcopalians (I usually identify myself as an Orthodox Anglican Catholic) but what ever we are all historically Catholic in our theology with only very minor differences separating us from truely being universally Catholic, practice canniblism because we believe that we actually factually make physical contact with the risen Lord in the celibration of the sacriment of Holy Eucharist. The host and blood are the body and blood of Christ because Christ said they were. As an Anglican I don’t have to explain it I just have to believe it. I don’t have to know how God works that out I only believe that if thats what God wants thats what God gets. It really His problem so let God work it out.
 
Yes Easter is more important. Never said it wasn’t. But the story of Christ began at Christmas. You celebrate Christmas in July?
The company I work for recognized Christmas as a paid holiday. But not Easter. Why? They are both Christian holidays
Anyway, back to the topic. No I don’t think my old church knew much about history.
Christmas started being celebrated on Dec. 25, a long time ago. I remember during RCIA someone saying it was a pagan holiday, and the early Catholics just started celebrating the Lord’s birth on that day. It doesn’t matter that it was a pagan holiday, it’s what they were celebrating.
I’ve heard of ‘Christians’ who won’t celebrate Christmas because of the pagan roots. It’s not a pagan day if you don’t make it a pagan day.
 
Regarding intecessory prayer. I usually say the Rosary several times a week and when I am doing that I am not worshiping Mary the Mother of God I am really only asking her to pray for me. Sort of hey I am scared and would you please hold my hand if you will. We ask for intecessory prayer all the time. Protestant faiths do too. They ask each other to pray for each other and they pray corporately for for good health healing good weather elections peace and all manner of other requests for help. What difference is there then if we ask the Saints to join us in our petitions to God for whatever is best for us in His eyes?

I am a scoutmaster of the troop sponsored by our parish. One of the other adult leaders who by the way is a very radical Baptist refused when he attended Scout Sunday at our church to say he believed in the holy catholic church in the Nicean Creed. Later he mentioned to me that he thought that was a sneaky way to get him stuck as a papist puppet. I explained that catholic means universal and that in that context holy catholic church was refering to a holy universal church. It didn’t register but thats a demonstration of the misconceptions there are that held about those of us who are from Catholic traditions.
 
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AmberDale:
That’s what I meant, not advent. I am new to this and got it mixed up. I never told him advent. So sorry. Advent is before hand, Christmas is what 3 weeks? I didn’t mean Advent. Dang now I look odd.
No never said why he thought this. I didn’t stay long 'cuz I was trying to get food for the 2 year old (it was buffet) and I could hear him getting mad.
I’ll have to ask if I remeber when I see him again
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Hey, typos are no problem.

I had First Communion and Confirmation last Easter (was baptized Catholic but parents stopped taking me to church). I was very excited about it, especially as I was nearing the big day, and I just expected others to be excited for me too. Unfortunately, some of our Christian brothers and sisters are not so excited. I had many people question why I would want to do such a thing and others who just didn’t have much of a response at all.

But the people who share these sacraments with you and understand their significance will always be excited!

Congratulations and God bless!
 
Welcome to the “First Church of Christ” known today as the Catholic Church. Many of our seperated brethren do not study history and their Christian churches are very young and have little history, especially here in the USA. Cardinal Newman said that to be “steeped in History is to cease to be anything other than Catholic” or something very similar. I do not have the exact quote, it may have been “cease to be protestant”. This after he came home to Rome from the Angilcan Church with several hundred followers. Martin Luther and the other reformers only date to the 1500’s and the Christian Church has fractured continually since!

Advent is the time of preparation and Christmas lasts from the Christmas Vigil until the Feast of the Epithany (12 days). Some confusion may lie in the fact that the celebration of Christmas being almost totally focused on the infancy of our Lord is a rather late invention that began with St. Francis and the first Nativity Scenes. St. Francis thought we should remember the birth with greate attention, that something had been lost in the CHristmas celebrations, this around the year 1000 or 1100, I forget exactly the dates for St. Francis, sorry.

Initially, and should be remembered today, we wait in anticipation of the coming of our Lord Jesus when he comes again at the end of days. One of the ways we prepare is by reflecting on his first coming. The penetential aspect of Advent is related to this preparation for the second coming and how we live the Christian life today. We have never just celebrated the birth that occurred 2000 +/- years ago.

The December date was set to offset the pagan celebrations around the winter solstice, the shortest day of the year. Christians in the Roman Empire decided to celebrate Jesus, the source of Light and Life. They celebrated the sun, we celebrate the SON, WHO WAS, WHO IS and WHO IS TO COME.

:gopray2: :bible1: :gopray:
 
AmberDale,

from your post:

Christmas started being celebrated on Dec. 25, a long time ago. I remember during RCIA someone saying it was a pagan holiday, and the early Catholics just started celebrating the Lord’s birth on that day. It doesn’t matter that it was a pagan holiday, it’s what they were celebrating.
I’ve heard of ‘Christians’ who won’t celebrate Christmas because of the pagan roots. It’s not a pagan day if you don’t make it a pagan day.

During the Christmas season I heard a priest on Relevant radio explain that there is another reason why December 25th was picked.

Way back in time (I don’t rembember when he said) it was believed that a person will die on the anniversary of the date of their conception. Since it was believed that Christ died on March 25th, the day we celebrate the Annunciation, Mary would gave given birth to Jesus on December 25th.

I thought this was very cool.

Vicky
 
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AmberDale:
Okay now listen to this. I was out to dinner with my husband during Advent. We ran into my old pastor (protestant, I’ll be baptized Catholic on Easter), his wife and a couple members of my old church. I was talking with them to see how they were. They asked when I was going to bring the new baby in to be dedicated. I told them rather excitedly that I would be baptized on Easter into the Catholic church. And the children would be baptized Catholic also. Then things changed. They started preaching to me about praying TO Mary and the saints. I rather patietly explained to them we pray for them to pray for us. When you ask Jimmy to pray for you, it’s the same thing, only the saints are in heaven already. I was told, but Catholics don’t celebrate Christmas. I was like what! Where did you hear that. We celebrate Christmas for like 4 weeks (Advent). Of course we celebrate Christmas. I think your thinking of Jewish people, who celebrate Hanakua (spelling sorry).
Am I the only person who has never heard that Catholics don’t celebrate Christmas?
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We don’t celebrate Christmas…I would have fallen on the floor and died of laughter. I have never heard that.

As said above, St. Nicholas is a Catholic Saint.

Advent comes from the word “to come” in latin. Advent is the preparation for the comming of Christ the King.
 
It never ceases to amaze me the misconceptions that protestants spread about the Catholic faith :rolleyes: that’s why it is the duty of every Catholic to know as much about their faith as possible and correct these misconceptions where ever they pop up.
 
I have never in my life ever heard this and I’m married to a Baptist!

You know, I find it really strange that at Christmas, Catholics preapre for 4 weeks preceeding Christmas and for how many after Christmas? We have a number of Christmas Masses on that wonderful day. Christmas means “Christ’s Mass.”

In all the years we have been married - 21 - my husband has never attended a Christmas Service at the Baptist church on Christmas Day - unless it fell on a Sunday! The only thing prior to Christmas that they ever prepared for was their Contada, usually held over a weekend and that was it!

In fact, I often felt a sense of inconvenience from my husband’s family when my family and I have to make Christmas Mass plans around the gift exchange! It really should be the other way around and it was until I married into a protestant family.

I don’t know of ANY denomination that celebrates Christmas the way Catholic do! That is such an insult!!! Where do they think they got Christmas from in the first place? It also shows a great deal of ignorance!
 
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