"Halloween" and Christmas Traditions

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My wife and I, new to Traditionalism, are trying to think of good Catholic Traditions for these holidays, particularly alternatives to the standard Halloween and Santa Claus stuff.

Do you have any family traditions for All Saints Eve and/or Christmas?

We’re also curious if anyone does a Santa Claus type thing on St. Nicholas’ actual feast day.
 
James924 said:
My wife and I, new to Traditionalism, are trying to think of good Catholic Traditions for these holidays, particularly alternatives to the standard Halloween and Santa Claus stuff.

Do you have any family traditions for All Saints Eve and/or Christmas?

We’re also curious if anyone does a Santa Claus type thing on St. Nicholas’ actual feast day.
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Greetings James924,

How about going to Mass on these days? On Halloween, I have heard of others instead of going on trick or treat expeditions, they figure out how they can bless the ones that they come into contact with. So it comes out as a Blesing and treats for all.

I grill with friends on major holidays and it has become quite a tradition. Mass in the morning, and then hang around and eat grilled turkey and what not. I usually don’t ask for presents, because I am blessed to have my friends in my life, God, and the Church, I am content by God’s grace.

It will be interesting to see what others post here too. I too am looking for some new traditions for myself.

God bless.
Anathama Sit
 
We like to buy pumpkin’s and carve them (1 for each). Then we put votive candles inside of them and enjoy them for a week or so.
We enjoy the children coming to the door to “Trick or Treat”. Most of them are adorable.
I like to bake pumpkin bread and make popcorn balls for us during that autumn time.

During Christmas season we bring out our Advent Candle Wreath and say the nightly prayer’s before dinner. Then on Christmas Eve we look forward to Midnite Mass. Beautiful.
 
During Advent, my parents always had us do “Advent Angels.” Just before the beginning of Advent we picked a family member’s name out of a hat. We would do good deeds (chores etc) for that person all Advent (hopefully without them “catching” us). Then at the end of Advent, we would take turns guessing who our “angel” was. The one selected by all as the best Advent angel got to put the baby Jesus into the manger. Learned many lessons from the experiences … all good
 
I hear that long ago, instead of soliciting for candy, people (I think even adults and especially the poor) would ask for a special cake made on that day. In return, they would pray for the person who gave the cake. I sure wish I could be like that, there would be so much graces given out. You could get each of your family members to make some cakes and to ask each other for cakes in exchange for prayers maybe.
 
My sister thinks I’m crazy for not wanting to dress my kid up for Halloween and thinks its religious fanaticism. But for me, dressing up for Halloween is not only not part of our faith, its also not part of our culture. Until recently of course when Americanization has seeped into Filipino culture. I mean kids today do the Americanized version of Halloween. But I never had that growing up and its not a big deal to me.

I’m proud that we have a rich, religious oriented, cultural tradition for both holidays, and I will adhere to it.

Moreover, since making the switch to the Ukrainian Church. Halloween is not part of Church tradition. We pray for the dead during Saturdays of Lent (which makes sense to me, Lent is for being sorry for sins so we pray for the sins of the departed to be forgiven) and All Saints Day is the Sunday after Pentecost (again makes sense because Saints only came into existence after Easter).
 
Hi, as far as Halloween goes, Constantine is right in saying that we dont celebrate All Saints on November 1st but frommy own experience I can remember the trick or treat thing being done by Byzantine Catholic kids, again, an American cultural thing. Ihave heard some people suggesting things like dressing up as saints rather than ghoulish monsters. Another thing you might do so your kids wont feel left out of somefun might be to have some kind of a autumn or harvest theme family thing for them at or around Halloween.
As for St.Nicholas that is a feastday observed in the Byzantine churchs since he is their patron and it is common for Eastern parishes to have things like St,. Nicholas dinners and lots of time the kids will get little gifts but these would usually be more on the order of candy or stockingstuffer stuff. Actually I think this was a popular custom in Europe but probably not anymore.
Our family has a Hungarian background and the Hungarian custom, Latin and Byzantine Catholic, is to set up tree on Christmas Eve as a surprise and the kids are told the tree and the gifts were brought by Jesus and the angels. Better than belief in a secular corruption of St.Nicholas!
Anyway I think this will be such an interesting thread and hope more people come to share traditions and ideas for ways to make these Holidays Catholic Holydays again. Maybe Constantine could share more with us the customs of Filipino Christmas.🙂
 
kitkatty said:
Maybe Constantine could share more with us the customs of Filipino Christmas.🙂
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First is Halloween. People would literally camp at cemeteries from October 31-November 2. I heard the tradition really started as November 2 only (All Souls Day) but because there was so many people going to cemeteries, people decided to “beat the rush” and come earlier and stay for a longer amount of time. Camping really isn’t necessary, most people like my family would go and stay for a couple of hours. It starts with prayers for the dead (no particular prayer, we usually pray the Rosary) then a picnic, sometimes exchange stories to remember the dead. Most cemeteries with chapel will have regularly scheduled Masses during these days. Or an area in the cemetery will have an altar set-up for Mass. There are also Masses in regular parishes.

For Christmas, we have Simbang Gabi (Evening Mass) which is actually pre-dawn Novena Masses from December 16-24. Then we have the Christmas Mass after which the traditional Noche Buena (Christmas Eve meal). Then Christmas Day is alot of connecting with relatives and friends. Usually you either stay home the entire day and host a bunch of people, or you move about and move from house to house between relatives and friends.
 
ConstantineTG said:
First is Halloween. People would literally camp at cemeteries from October 31-November 2. I heard the tradition really started as November 2 only (All Souls Day) but because there was so many people going to cemeteries, people decided to “beat the rush” and come earlier and stay for a longer amount of time. Camping really isn’t necessary, most people like my family would go and stay for a couple of hours. It starts with prayers for the dead (no particular prayer, we usually pray the Rosary) then a picnic, sometimes exchange stories to remember the dead. Most cemeteries with chapel will have regularly scheduled Masses during these days. Or an area in the cemetery will have an altar set-up for Mass. There are also Masses in regular parishes.
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That sounds awesome, and very Catholic!
 
James924 said:
That sounds awesome, and very Catholic!
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There are also indulgences granted for praying at the burial site of a person during the week of All Souls Day. So there is a basis for this in Roman Catholic teaching.

By the way, just relating Byzantine tradition, the Eastern tradition is to bless graves during the Pascha/Easter season. The timing is appropriate because we celebrate Christ’s resurrection, and we’re eagerly anticipating and praying for His promise for the resurrection of the dead.
 
Treat Advent as Advent and Christmas as Christmas.

We put up the tree very late Advent (we get a live tree) and decorate it for Advent- we have pink and purple ball ornaments that go on along with the lights.

Christmas Eve, we decorate the tree with all of the Christmas ornaments and place the presents under the tree. We keep the tree up for all of the Christmas season- which is a good reason to wait till later in Advent if you want a live tree and don’t want needles all over the place.

Traditionally, Advent is a penitential season- like Lent. It’s a time for prayer, confession, fasting. Our popular culture says Christmas begins the day after Thanksgiving and ends at midnight on Christmas day. This is not true. Appreciate the season of Advent, and then appreciate the full season of Christmas.

There are lots of good Catholic traditions out there for Advent and Christmas.

We have struggled more to find what to do with for halloween- if anything. I’ll be sure to read through the thread to see what others have suggested.

Pax and God Bless.
 
James924 said:
My wife and I, new to Traditionalism, are trying to think of good Catholic Traditions for these holidays, particularly alternatives to the standard Halloween and Santa Claus stuff.

Do you have any family traditions for All Saints Eve and/or Christmas?

We’re also curious if anyone does a Santa Claus type thing on St. Nicholas’ actual feast day.
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For Christmas, keep a Nativity scene as well as a Christmas tree; you may want to collect them. Instead of Santa or winter-theme cards I use the Three Wise Men, which is a religious theme but “safe” enough for my non-religious/non-Christian friends that celebrate Christmas.

Do you have children? In my family we were only allowed to open one present per day throughout the twelve days, to remind of us the actual spirit of Christmas. However, the temptation to rip them all open when the adults aren’t looking increases when ALL of the presents are under the tree on Christmas morning, so, you might want to hide them cleverly. 🙂

We’ve no traditions for All Saints Eve / Halloween. My family never celebrated Halloween, since our culture is different, and Halloween seems pagan-ish at worst and somewhat disgraceful at best (“Why do you need to beg the neighbours for sweets?”). But on All Souls Day, we always light candles for our departed loved ones and keep music at a minimum, as we do on Good Friday.
 
We talk about Santa some, but really emphasize that he is based on St. Nicholas, who was a real person.

Reading up on St. Nicholas is great for any time of the year, but is also a good Christmas tradition.

Among other things, he is:
-The Patron Saint of Children
-Known for punching heretics in the face

Pax.
 
James924 said:
Do you have any family traditions for All Saints Eve and/or Christmas?

We’re also curious if anyone does a Santa Claus type thing on St. Nicholas’ actual feast day.
Click to expand...
it is perfectly acceptable for Catholics to celebrate these holidays with popular secular customs, as long as they also celebrate the actual Church holy days as prescribed: All Saints, All Souls, Advent, Christmas etc.

that being said, in CCD we downplay the secular aspects and concentrate on those that relate to the liturgical calendar.

The older teens do a St. Nicholas thing for the kinder and primary grades, dress up as the bishop and his helper, put treats in their shoes (left outside the classroom door), tell the story of St.Nicholas etc.

we have an All Saints fiesta the session closest to the Holy Day, and Father welcomes children to attend the Holy Day Mass in there saint costumes. That results in a lot of holy power rangers and princesses, but whatever.
 
We don’t really have any religious Halloween traditions. We do have extra masses at CHurch on the relavent days, and the kids also might have a Sunday School lesson on them some years. But for the most part we treat it as a secular holiday, or even a sort of “natural” holiday like Thanksgiving.

For Christmas, I get out the nativity scene for the beginning of Advent, but without Jesus. We put the wise men on the other side of the room. Christ appears on Christmas morning, and then the wise men start to move on their “trip” around the room, arriving on Epiphany.

Last year we also did a Jesse Tree with the kids, and we treat it as a penitential season - we try not to get too “Christmassy” before the actual date.

Our church has a big celebration for the kids on St Nicolas feast day, where they make cookies and other things, and St Nic comes for a visit after church too. I’ve considered having our stockings on that day instead of Christmas, but it didn’t seem very practical for us as the rest of our family has him bring them on Christmas. So we just say that he delivers them on Christmas to celebrate Christ’s birth.
 
James924 said:
My wife and I, new to Traditionalism, are trying to think of good Catholic Traditions for these holidays, particularly alternatives to the standard Halloween and Santa Claus stuff.

Do you have any family traditions for All Saints Eve and/or Christmas?

We’re also curious if anyone does a Santa Claus type thing on St. Nicholas’ actual feast day.
Click to expand...
Being a traditionalist doesn’t have to mean giving up cultural tradition.
Halloween or all hallows eve is a traditionally Catholic night. IT started with the belief that on this night the spirits of the dead come to visit the living. Since we believe in the communion of saints and continual contact with those who have passed, this is not out of line. The practice of carved pumpkins was meant to ward off evil spirits.
Modern day culture has turn it into blood and gore. As motioned, celebrate the life of the saints, but their deaths are often much more gruesome than Hollywood, or pray for our dearly departed.

As for Christmas season, keep advent, meaning avoid putting up decorations until the end of advent. This is hard to do with children, so perhaps take is slow, put up the tree, but don’t decorate it all at once. Have ornaments with religious themes. St. Nicholas feast is early in the month, celebrate it as the reason from were our other traditions come including Santa. For Christmas have all your decorations up, have a nativity in a prominent place, since His birth is the reason for the season, and each year we should celebrate it.
 
Bluegoat said:
We don’t really have any religious Halloween traditions. We do have extra masses at CHurch on the relavent days, and the kids also might have a Sunday School lesson on them some years. But for the most part we treat it as a secular holiday, or even a sort of “natural” holiday like Thanksgiving.

For Christmas, I get out the nativity scene for the beginning of Advent, but without Jesus. We put the wise men on the other side of the room. Christ appears on Christmas morning, and then the wise men start to move on their “trip” around the room, arriving on Epiphany.

Last year we also did a Jesse Tree with the kids, and we treat it as a penitential season - we try not to get too “Christmassy” before the actual date.

Our church has a big celebration for the kids on St Nicolas feast day, where they make cookies and other things, and St Nic comes for a visit after church too. I’ve considered having our stockings on that day instead of Christmas, but it didn’t seem very practical for us as the rest of our family has him bring them on Christmas. So we just say that he delivers them on Christmas to celebrate Christ’s birth.
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What’s a Jesse tree?
 
That lower “Jesse Tree” is beautiful.

How do you folks make one? Is it 3-D, or is it a painting on a flat surface?
Glad you posted a pic, as I am going to paint something somewhat similar to that pic you loaded, on canvas for us.
What country, or countries does this Jesse Tree originate from?
 
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