Church Christmas Decorations

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musicmantg11

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What does your parish church look like now in this Christmas Season? What’s your opinion on the decorations used (too little or too much)? Who decorates the church? When are they taking the decorations down?

Just wondered.

Have a Blessed New Year!
 
My husband’s assigned parish removes the decorations right after Epiphany (ie - today). The parishes I go to leave everything up until Candlemas.
 
Church has several poinsettias, 2 wreaths on the wall of the sanctuary, the nativity scene to the left, too much red fabric (11 windows draped with red scarves & gold toppers), some artificial boughs and lights around the door to the narthex, in the narthex a white spiral tree of lights and some bare branches with mini lights.

It usually doesn’t come down until after the Baptism of the Lord, next Sunday, but Fr. seemed to think it’s coming down tomorrow. We’ll see.

The Liturgy Committee usually recruits volunteers to decorate each year.
 
musicmantg11 said:
What does your parish church look like now in this Christmas Season? What’s your opinion on the decorations used (too little or too much)? Who decorates the church? When are they taking the decorations down?

Just wondered.

Have a Blessed New Year!
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Our decorations always remain up until after the Mass of the Baptism of the Lord, which is the liturgical end of the Christmas season.

There is a core group of “regulars” who always show up to decorate and undecorate, but anyone can attend to help.

Our decorations are beautiful. We have a creche to the right of the sanctuary area, we have red and white poinsettias grouped in certain areas, we have a couple of groupings of artificial Christmas trees, some of which are lit with white lights and the others left plain.

It all really looks beautiful, very tasteful, and reverent.
 
One nice thing about our modern rather plain-looking large church (although we do have statues, the stations, and stained-glass windows) is that when it comes to decorating it for special occasions, we can do a lot of decorating without clashing with existing ornamentation and it doesn’t become overwhelming. We have an art and environment committee that I believe is responsible for the planning, and volunteers for the work. They do an outstanding job. The highlight at Christmas is our absolutely gorgeous Nativity Set that someone donated when the new church was built. It was imported from Italy, I believe, and every one of the large figurines is a work of art in itself, with beautiful colors and minute detailing. It is arranged next to the sanctuary and takes up a large amount of space, with 13 or 14 figures, so it would not work in a smaller church, but in ours the effect is nearly breathtaking, and we look forward to seeing it every year. I wish I had a picture of it–it is a real treat for the eyes.
 
The custom in our parish is for those with deceased friends or relatives they wish to honor bring a pointsettia plant. It doesn’t matter where one buys it, or its size. The parish provides the Christmas trees and wreaths. The environment committee then groups the plants by color and size, and does what it does with them.

This is kind of a blurry photo of how it looked from the viewpoint of the altar rail:

View attachment 4901

There were actually blue pointsettias this year. These were placed by the statues of Mary and Joseph, along with whites and pinks, and one of the blue ones near the tabernacle. The pinks were used heavily by the ambo.
 
Our parish altar society, in consultation with our pastor, handles the art and environment for the church. We decorated on December 22-23, putting up poinsettias, the Christmas Tree and the Nativity Scene.

I did offer to help at the Cathedral; however, since we took a lot longer than expected, and since B-gal is not proficient in ironing, it was a little difficult to get the drapery ready. Nonetheless, I did give the new administrator some ideas for decorating the Cathedral. I was pleasantly surprised when I walked into the Cathedral for a visit that he took my suggestions to heart.

We will not be taking down our decorations until after Christmas (the Monday after the Feast of the Baptism of the Lord). The same goes for the Cathedral; although I think that the Nativity Scene will be taken down after February 2nd.
 
Cat said:
Here’s one of my parishes (I play regularly for two parishes):

stanthonyrockford.com/parish/visuals_xmas.asp

It’s sooooo beautiful!!! Come visit us!
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Thanks for sharing, Cat. 👍

99% of the churches I’m familiar with are depressingly ugly and barely recognizable as churches 😦 – so I sometimes forget that there really are some beautiful gems left in this country! 🙂

I would so love to have a church like that near me.
 
simply beautiful Altar Society does it with help from some husbands.

6 trees (artificial due to fire codes) with gold lights, one with red white and blue lights (introduced in 2001). candlelight procession on Christmas eve, wreathes between the stations, poinsettias in the sanctuary and on the windowsills, plus manger of course.

large manger outside on the lawn, with lights on the bushes and outlining the figures (our spotlight was stolen).

decorations will come down Saturday before Baptism of the Lord, first time anyone has leisure to deal with them. Parishioners may buy the poinsettias for $2 (they can be planted in gardens here).
 
Our cathedral is decorated very tastefully in my opinion. On each of the pillars on either side of the nave hang large red bows. From each of the bows hangs a small Christmas wreath. To the right of the high altar in the sanctuary area there is a Christmas tree (a real one) with white lights. There are no decorations on it apart from cards bearing the title of one of the nine Fruits of the Holy Spirit. In an alcove off the ambulatory there is the Christmas crib - it is a most beautiful presentation of the Nativity scene. There are one or two light-up stars inside and outside the building which I’m not a huge fan of - except, perhaps the one above the Nativity scene.

I’m not sure when exactly the decorations will be taken down, though I expect the crib will be left for at least a week after Epiphany - the Wise Men have not arrived yet, so it would probably be a bit mean to only give them one day!
 
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