Church Decorations

[TheMc]

Here, no flowers are allowed during Advent and Lent but I don’t know if tha tis a local or universal church rule, so find out. Any flowers brought in for a wedding, OL Guadalupe etc. have to be removed immediately afterward, for instance.

Here’s what you’re looking for from the GIRM:

1. Moderation should be observed in the decoration of the altar.
   During advent the floral decoration of the altar should be marked by a moderation suited to the character of this time of year, without expressing in anticipation the full joy of the Nativity of the Lord. During Lent it is forbidden for the altar to be decorated with flowers. exceptions, however, are Laetare Sunday (fourth Sunday of Lent), Solemnities, and feasts.
   Floral decoration should always show moderation and be arranged around the altar rather than on the altar table.

 

[Patchunky]

the other rule I have seen in every parish we have served is no decorations on Christmas trees other than white or gold lights (not blinking), again like the flowers don’t know if that is some canon law.

Our Sunday school kids made wooden decorations with pictures of the Nativity, Angels, Shepherds and 3 Kings decoupaged on them. We hang these on our Christmas Tree along with colored lights and a star at the top.

 

[puzzleannie]

Wouldn’t the exception to this would be the Jesse Tree?

I remember when I was a kid, my parish had a big Jesse Tree. Our then-pastor would take the opportunity to catechize the children on the meaning of the Jesse Tree. He had a talk about it after every Sunday Mass and had the sisters who ran the school have a special Mass where he blessed it.

When the pastor left for another parish, the Jesse Tree never re-appeared.

yes we had one one year, and the children brought up the new symbols each week, but now it is replaced by the “giving trees” in Advent which have gift tags for children’s gifts to be donated by parishioners to needy of the parish. We do the Jesse tree in the context of CCD every third year. And our trees at Christmas will have decorations, after 911 we had one in red, white and blue each year to honor parishioners serving in the military.

there are of course never flowers on the altar, or any other “seasonal” symbols, they are in front on the floor or another suitable place. the manger scene will go in front of the Altar for this Sunday, 4th of Advent, and the children in procession Christmas eve will bring the Infant and place him in the manger.

Our Altar Society does a beautiful job with the Christmas decorations, and that reminds be of another hint, they have in place permanent hooks for the wreaths (palm fronds on palm Sunday etc.) which where specially placed when the Church was repainted. On no account start pounding nails, hooks etc. in the walls, or using tape etc.

 

[odile53]

We have a Jesse tree standing just outside the sanctuary. It’s actually a Norfolk pine, and I think the church got it at the local supermarket because I saw some there for not much money when I was shopping the other day. It really reminds me of the Christmas tree that Charlie Brown had in the TV cartoon show, and looks pretty pathetic standing right out there near the parish intention book.

Most larger cities have a food terminal that has fresh flowers. Frequently the terminals have vendors’ stalls that sell to the public. The cost is considerably cheaper than what a retail florist would charge. You buy so many of each type of flower, and have someone arrange them in vessels. They don’t deliver, so you need someone with a bigger car or a minivan or something to go pick them up.

I wouldn’t worry too much about the asbestos tile, as long as it’s intact and not disturbed. The problem is when someone decides to remove asbestos, the dust that gets kicked up is the carcinogenic stuff. That’s when you need the hazmat teams!

You might want to see if the parish ever had the tile sealed. Better flooring can probably be installed right over it.

This Wednesday, after Mass, I signed up to help decorate the church for Christmas. I’m one of three parishioners who isn’t afraid to climb the huge scaffolding to hang stuff.

 

[puzzleannie]

We have a Jesse tree standing just outside the sanctuary. It’s actually a Norfolk pine, and I think the church got it at the local supermarket because I saw some there for not much money when I was shopping the other day. It really reminds me of the Christmas tree that Charlie Brown had in the TV cartoon show, and looks pretty pathetic standing right out there near the parish intention book.

.

sounds right, it is actually supposed to be a rather naked or bare branch tree, so as NOT to look like a Christmas tree. ours is mesquite, cemented into a bucket by a parent to stand up (he burnt off the prickers for us).

 

[puzzleannie]

While red and green may be secular colors associated with Christmas, I don’t agree they are proper liturgical colors for Advent. .

.

I did not mean to imply they were proper colors for Advent (which are violet and rose) but that they are certainly liturgical colors. I did not think OP was asking about ADvent only. I have a personal aversion to banners, but agree with those who are working on a budget with what is available. What is the floor like under that carpet, can’t it just be ripped out?

 

[fred_conty]

During spring, summer, fall, why not have people bring in their flowers from their gardens.
They don’t have to be perfect if given from the heart.

Just a thought.

 

[pilots13]

This Wednesday, after Mass, I signed up to help decorate the church for Christmas. I’m one of three parishioners who isn’t afraid to climb the huge scaffolding to hang stuff.

We used to have to set up a huge ladder and climb up to the roofline to hang the banners on the sides of the church. One year the ladder shifted and someone almost fell (this was at Christmas). By Easter we had pulleys on all the beams. I don’t know what you’re hanging and what it’s attached to, but pulleys are a lifesaver (literally).

We’re decorating this Wednesday also. I’ll try to get some photos up when we’re done.

 

[pilots13]

I did not mean to imply they were proper colors for Advent (which are violet and rose) but that they are certainly liturgical colors. I did not think OP was asking about ADvent only. I have a personal aversion to banners, but agree with those who are working on a budget with what is available. What is the floor like under that carpet, can’t it just be ripped out?

I would hate to use banners if my parish was some 100 year old, ornately decorated building. Instead is boring, plain 1960’s architecture. Thus banners give something worth looking at on the walls.

It was asbestos tile. I have no idea if they ripped the tile out when they laid the carpet, or if they just went over it. I uploaded a couple older photos on that site in the Misc Designs tab that show what the sanctuary looked like pre-remodel (carpet, cross, and altar moved). If you ripped it out, you’d either have to replace the carpet with new carpet or retile it.

 

[pilots13]

During spring, summer, fall, why not have people bring in their flowers from their gardens.
They don’t have to be perfect if given from the heart.

Just a thought.

We do have people who do that! Often they end up either in front of the Altar or on one of the side Altars ( just cause a small bouquet of cut flowers would get totally lost most anywhere else in that huge sanctuary.

 

[pilots13]

Here’s how Christmas turned out this year. As always, I love critiques.

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Merry Christmas!

 

[PrayForMeStJude]

Here’s how Christmas turned out this year. As always, I love critiques.

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Merry Christmas!

Again, I feel sorry for you having such an up hill battle with this, but I think it turned out nicely. I’m no big fan of the architecture/design decisions that went into that church, but you did a really nice job of elevating the space.

If I went to that parish, I think I would be happy to see those decorations.

 

[MarkThompson]

Here’s how Christmas turned out this year. As always, I love critiques.

stpatsdeco.weebly.com/uploads/6/6/9/2/6692581/4112910_orig.jpg

Merry Christmas!

I think that’s probably the best of all the ones I’ve seen on your site. I love the juxtaposition of the star and the crucifix, which really connects the two key mysteries of Our Lord’s life. It is actually very sobering, if you stop to think about it, to see the star not over the manger at Bethlehem but over the Cross at Golgotha. The side banners are simple without looking cheap; interesting without being distracting; break up those huge blank walls without dominating the sanctuary.

Glad to see the creche to the side rather than right in front of the altar. I like that you carried through the theme of the buildings, even if they do have a slight Tatooine-ish quality to them.

Complaints: Not a fan of the off-center altar hanging, but on the other hand the altar cloth itself, with lace and all, looks to be of a much nicer quality than what I remember in other pictures. I also would have positioned the two candelabras in some symmetrical way, instead of having one in front of the banner with the star and the other shoved off to the side randomly. And if I had seven fir trees, I would not have chosen to light four of them in white, one in red, and two not at all. Last, are there any better chairs you can get for the servers than those plastic folding chairs?

The complaints are minor. The overall effect is a bit busier than I would have had it – you could probably lose two or three of the fir trees as well as the poinsettias in front of the altar – but I think it is clearly your best effort to date, from what I can see. Merry Christmas!

 

[odile53]

You did a great job with the decorations! I, too, love the juxtaposition of the star and the crucifix, highlighting in a very dramatic way the primacy of the sacrifice on the cross even during this joy-filled season. The creche to the side works very well also, as do the interspersed building silhouettes through the sanctuary (Christ came in the midst of teeming humanity.)

As far as the use of lighting is concerned–is there any way that the star banner could be reconfigured to allow for down-directed backlighting of the star itself? Just an idea, and I don’t know its actual construction, it might be a nightmare to hoist aloft with a block and tackle and still have the electrical connections intact.

After you had first posted your decorating quandaries on this board, for some reason I thought about the obvious challenges you are facing in decorating this space, and the idea popped into my head: If there is a local college with a theater department, you might want to see if there are some students who are studying set design, and see if the college might loan them to you for some assistance. You can set the parameters, ecclesiastic as well as budgetary, and see what they come up with. But that’s beside the point here.

You did a beautiful job, and should humbly take pride in the fact that you gave your fellow parishioners an elegant yet thought provoking setting for the celebration of the Nativity of Our Lord.

Merry Christmas!

 

[pilots13]

Thanks for the feedback so far. A few comments on your comments…

• I love the Tatooine comparison. Never made that before, but now every Sunday I’ll be singing “Little town of Tatooine” in my head. That style Bethlehem is in was designed by the guy who was in charge before me (a good 15 years ago). I modeled my new Bethlehem after that one (the original one is up on the website)
• The Altar cloth on there now was made about 10ish years ago. It pops up from time to time. I just don’t want to use it all the time (plus it’s only in white and sometimes I want to go green or purple or something.
• I tried the candelabras symmetrical, but could never get it to look right.
• The chairs actually aren’t plastic folding chairs. They are folding, but wood and nice fabric. They just replaced the old server chairs a couple weeks ago because the old ones basically didn’t have backs and people were complaining about them being uncomfortable. My impression is they are a temporary fix.
• As for lighting, it would be possible, just take a bit more work. The star is just foamboard, and you could fasten a light behind the star and mounted to the pole. My hesitation to put lights up on banners is that the electric cords would look tacky hanging down the wall. Though with this year’s star banner, you would have been able to easily hide to behind the banner.
• The theater department is an interesting idea. My old high school has a very respected theater department in town. They’d be a good place to start to go forward with that idea.

Again, thanks for the feedback, and I’d love more comments if anyone has any.
and again, Merry Christmas!

 

[Digitonomy]

Wow, that’s great. Well-balanced, and as Mark said the decorations do a great job breaking up the vast expanses of wall and carpet. While I don’t usually care for pictures on banners and other decorations, the usually bland walls are in serious need of visual interest, and I think your Tatooine look is probably more successful than stripes or other abstract designs would have been.

On the Tatooine question, those scenes in the movie were shot at and inspired by the architecture in Tunisia. I’m not sure how much we know about Bethlehem’s architecture at the time of Christ, but it seems like this style would not have been unknown in the larger region.

Complaints: Not a fan of the off-center altar hanging

I agree. This looks a bit odd hanging off the side of the altar cloth, and looks like it’s not well-attached at the top - or like it’s not attached at all, but a cardboard stand-up in front of the altar. I think with the success of everything else, the altar would have done just fine with only the poinsettias centered in front.

MarkThompson:

if I had seven fir trees, I would not have chosen to light four of them in white, one in red, and two not at all.

I showed the photo to a friend, whose main beef was the lights on the trees, which she said should have been omitted, and the number of trees fewer. I think the absence of lights would have made for too great an expanse of somewhat dull evergreen, especially against the darker brick. The tallest tree does look quite good without lights against the white, but I don’t know if that would be as true with several other unlit trees clustered around. Decreasing the number of trees means increasing the amount of wall. I think the tree design is just fine.

 

[Cavaille-Coll]

Is this a Catholic church? No tabernacle, no statues, no visible ambo, and one altar candle?

GIRM 117: “On or next to the altar are to be placed candlesticks with lighted candles: at least two in any celebration, or even four or six, especially for a Sunday Mass or a holy day of obligation. If the Diocesan Bishop celebrates, then seven candles should be used. Also on or close to the altar, there is to be a cross with a figure of Christ crucified.”

 

[TheMc]

Is this a Catholic church? No tabernacle, no statues, no visible ambo, and one altar candle?

GIRM 117: “On or next to the altar are to be placed candlesticks with lighted candles: at least two in any celebration, or even four or six, especially for a Sunday Mass or a holy day of obligation. If the Diocesan Bishop celebrates, then seven candles should be used. Also on or close to the altar, there is to be a cross with a figure of Christ crucified.”

That’s what I was thinking too. Where’s the crucifix? Where’s the other altar candle?

 

[SMHW]

Is this a Catholic church? No tabernacle, no statues, no visible ambo, and one altar candle?

GIRM 117: “On or next to the altar are to be placed candlesticks with lighted candles: at least two in any celebration, or even four or six, especially for a Sunday Mass or a holy day of obligation. If the Diocesan Bishop celebrates, then seven candles should be used. Also on or close to the altar, there is to be a cross with a figure of Christ crucified.”

Well, this is not during Mass…

Well there is no shortage of candles overall. There are two seven candle candelabras behind the altar. The other single candle is currently over near the creche. It looks like the ambo might be back there too. And if it’s anything like a former parish church of mine, the statues are off to the side (out of the range of the photo. I don’t remember if the OP stated it in an earlier post but the tabernacle is probably in a side chapel somewhere. It looks like there might be a small crucifix on the altar itself.

 

[pilots13]

Is this a Catholic church? No tabernacle, no statues, no visible ambo, and one altar candle?

GIRM 117: “On or next to the altar are to be placed candlesticks with lighted candles: at least two in any celebration, or even four or six, especially for a Sunday Mass or a holy day of obligation. If the Diocesan Bishop celebrates, then seven candles should be used. Also on or close to the altar, there is to be a cross with a figure of Christ crucified.”

stpatsdeco.weebly.com/uploads/6/6/9/2/6692581/4984073_orig.jpg
Here is a wider view of the church. As you see the tabernalce is to the left of the sanctuary and Mary & Joseph are to the right, both on side Altars. We also have statues of St Patrick and the Sacred Heart in the back of the church.

The ambo is behind the crib scene. It’s normally not that covered by stuff, but unfortunately we don’t have a good space to put the crib. There aren’t any good areas in the lobby area or the main body of the church. We used to put it where the Tabernacle is, but a number of years ago things got remodeled and the Tabernacle moved from the right Altar to the left Altar and the location of the crib has floated around ever since.

The candle thing has always been a bit of a foggy thing for me. I was always under the impression, that if you had two candles in the sanctuary, you were good. The 4 single candles you see are all used every Mass 95% of the time (feasts like Good Friday, and a handful of other times I’ve only used 2, or different candles all together). They tend to move around a lot, pending how they fit best into the design. Our old pastor gave me a requirement that there always be one candle by the Altar and one by the Ambo, and he didn’t care where the other two were. With very few exceptions, this is what I’ve done. I guess how close to the Altar is “next” to it? Am I breaking rules only having one directly next to the Altar, or am I OK having 4 candles somewhere in the sanctuary at all times?

Lastly, yes, very good eye SMHW. There is a cross of the crucified Christ sitting on the Altar. The resurrected Christ cross was donated about 15 years ago. I do still have the old sanctuary cross (a crucified one) which I use at Lent often when I cover the resurrected cross (which is actually covered due to the resurrected aspect of it vs anything to do with the old tradition).