How did traditional catholics around the world celebrate Christmas prior to the 60s?

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What is the general way in which traditional catholics celebrate Christmas? Do they go to church, when do they go? How often, what do they do there? What does the home look like in terms of decorations? Are there christmas trees, are there dinners held? I’m new to traditional catholicism, and all i’ve ever learnt about christmas celebration has been outside the faith (the pagan way).
 
Observing Advent as a penitential season. Not putting up Christmas decorations or tree until Christmas Eve. Using an Advent wreathe and Jesse tree. Midnight Mass. Observing the Christmas season through Epiphany, when decorations and tree were taken down. Modest Christmas gifts opened on Christmas Eve so that Christmas Day could be devoted to Christ. Gifts to each other were always recognized as being in honor of the Christ Child, the ultimate gift to us. Manger scene where the Baby was placed in the crib first thing Christmas Day.
These are things my family did, and still do.
 
We did not have a Jesse tree unntil I had kids in the seventies. Not everybody went to midnight mass. We went in the morning and had to wait untill after mass to open our presents.
 
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Just like today it varied from country to country and people to people and even family to family.

Some people went to Midnight Mass, but certainly not everyone by any stretch of the imagination.

Although what I’d really want to know is how many candles were lit for Midnight Mass in the days before electricity. It certainly explains the need for cathedral style ceilings for the smoke from that many candles to gather back in those days.
 
My family included many Catholics who grew up in USA prior to the 1960s and to be honest they didn’t celebrate Christmas any differently than we did in the 60s and beyond.

You had a tree and a Manger scene (creche), attended Mass either at midnight or early Christmas morning, and spent the day opening presents and having family dinner.

In preparation for Christmas, one had an Advent calendar (I really didn’t see too many Jesse trees till the 70s when Catholics were getting more into Bible study), usually gave to charities remembering the poor people who had nothing for Christmas, sang carols, and the kids were in Nativity plays. Santa Claus was also part of the celebrations but it was emphasized he was a saint and that Jesus was the reason for the season.

The biggest difference in olden times was that it was definitely CHRISTmas, the Christmas cards were often religious, there was less “Happy Holidays” and people weren’t trying to lump Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, Festivus, and pagan solstice in with Christmas.
 
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Tis_Bearself said:
people weren’t trying to lump Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, Festivus, and pagan solstice in with Christmas.
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Kwanzaa and Festivus weren’t even invented in the 1960’s- a gentleman in Berkeley invented Kwanzaa about 1970, and Festivus is an invention of television writers in the 1990’s.
 
Yes, I know. My point is that there was not an attempt to lump all traditions of all religions and no religion into the Christian holiday.

I understand this led to some hurtful situations, for example I have read memoirs from Jewish-American children who felt left out for not having a tree and not getting presents from Santa (and I have also heard that some Jewish families had the Christmas tree anyway so the kids wouldn’t feel bad) but nowadays some people give you a dirty look if you say “Merry Christmas” or they will launch into some long explanation of how and why they don’t celebrate Christmas. That stuff never happened before the 70s.
 
I’m not sure there can be a simple answer to this question. For starters, what is the definition of a “traditional Catholic” in the 1950’s? Everybody? Christmas traditions varied widely from family to family and ethnicity to ethnicity. While many did attend Midnight Mass in those pre-Vigil days, that too was a family tradition and there were many Christmas Day Masses. I never heard any Church guidance on opening presents Christmas Eve; that would have come as a shock to the zillions of church-going families whose Baby-Boomer children put out milk and cookies for Santa in those more innocent times. While churches tended not to be decorated in advance as many are today, home decorations in my growing-up-in-the-50’s experience typically went up certainly before Christmas Eve. Dad was far too busy late on Christmas Eve assembling bicycles and play stoves to be able to put up the tree at that time. I think family and ethnic traditions influenced how families celebrated Christmas more than anything they heard from the pulpit - recognizing that the then far more widespread “national parishes” would have reinforced the specific ethnic traditions of that community.
 
I’ve been researching this as I try to decide how my family will change our traditions.

It seems to me that’s Advent (including the wreath) was popular as was going to mass Christmas morning/midnight. There were still presents, family dinners, carole’s, etc.

In my home, I think we will do a Jesse tree, advent calendar, advent wreath, and Christmas morning mass.
 
Mattapoisett64 said:
I think family and ethnic traditions influenced how families celebrated Christmas more than anything they heard from the pulpit
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This is certainly true.
I always understood in UK they opened presents the day after Christmas for example.
In US we opened them Christmas Day.

Tree decorating and house decorating usually took place some time in December so people could enjoy decorations and get in the mood before Christmas day proper. Christmas Eve might have been too late, unless it was a case of wanting to have the family all together to do it and one had to wait for Dad to have a day off work or family to arrive from out of town.
Usually just getting the presents ready and possibly Midnight Mass made for a very full Christmas Eve without the stress of decorating.
Families might wait till Christmas Eve to put Baby Jesus in the creche scene, or the star or angel on top of the Christmas tree.

The ethnic traditions really did play a big part in what foods were served and what decorations were preferred and so forth.
 
I’ll add in also there was no one correct traditional way to celebrate Christmas and each country, region, parish and family probably adopted some of the more common traditions that were meaningful to them as and also probably started their own new ones. You can research various traditions-there are plenty of books and articles-and pick the ones that touch your heart the most and deepen your relationship with Christ.

Here’s how my family does it just for some ideas…

Weekend before Thanksgiving-bring the Advent wreath and prayer book out of storage. Bring out the children’s wooden Nativity set as well. These just get put into a nearby closet for easy retrieval the next weekend. Check to make sure we have the necessary candles for the season and purchase advent calendars for my children. (the ones with the little doors to open with a piece of chocolate behind them). Most of these calendars begin on Dec 1st rather than the actual first Sunday of advent so my kids have to wait until then to begin opening them.

Weekend after Thanksgiving-put up winter decorations such as greenery on the mantle, wreaths on all the doors, an undecorated tree, snowman display in my sunroom. Put the Advent wreath on the center of the dining table with the prayer book in a nearby drawer. Usually (but not always) Advent begins the Sunday after Thanksgiving. Every evening, after we clear the table from dinner, we light the appropriate candle on the wreath and say the prayers for the day. On this first Sunday, my husband says the prayers to bless the Advent wreath and the Christmas tree. Once Dec 1st rolls around the kids also open the window of the day on their calendars and have their chocolate after prayer time. On the first and all the rest of the Sunday’s of Advent we begin setting up the children’s Nativity. The first Sunday we simply set out the empty stable. The following Sundays, we add a barn animal or two and then after the 5pm children’s Mass at our parish on Christmas Eve we add the Jesus, Mary and Joseph figure as they are all carved from one piece.

continued next post…
 
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Weekend before St. Nick Day (Dec 6th) and feast of the Immaculate Conception (Dec 8th)-decorate the mantle in the living room. The wreath that hangs above and the greenery are already there. I add lights to the greenery (but we don’t turn them on yet) and display all my St. Nick/Santa figures all along the mantle. I also hang up our stockings. A simple white votive candle with a blue ribbon and a statue of Mary is displayed in the dining room. On St. Nick Day, the kids wake up to treats in their stockings, with the mantle lights lit up for the day and we have a red/green dinner (Baked rigatoni, garlic bread and tossed salad with St. Nick/Santa sugar cookies for dessert.) There is a prayer to St. Nicholas in our Advent prayer book so we say that on that day. On Dec 8th we will go to Mass, light the candle by the Mary statue and say the extra prayer for that day with our Advent wreath lighting.

Weekend before Dec 13th-we put the lights on the Christmas tree and the lights in our windows. On St. Lucy day is the day we begin turning on our lights every day. She is the patron saint of the blind. Our youngest daughter gets to play St. Lucy by serving some kind of pastry to each family member after dinner for dessert and then we pack in the car to drive through our local “lights on the lake” display. We also have a prayer to St. Lucy we add to our Advent prayer.

Weekend before Christmas Eve-pull our other five Nativity displays out of storage and set them up and also pull out the tree decorations to be set aside until Christmas Eve. On Christmas Eve we go to the 5pm children’s Mass at our parish. After Mass we come home to a simple meal of meatballs simmering in the crockpot for sandwiches, salad, chips and some cookie trays to munch on. We light the Advent wreath one more time and put the ornaments on the tree while we watch A Christmas Story movie. Mary, Joseph and Jesus get added to the children’s nativity and the kids each get one present to open (usually new pj’s, slippers or a robe).

…to be continued (sorry for the book)
 
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What has happened, even with Catholics, is Christmas Eve has replaced Christmas. Advent has become the celebration of Christmas that basically culminates and ends on Christmas Eve. Many people are tired of Christmas by Christmas day. This is actually understandable really with how we celebrate it culturally.
 
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Christmas Day-open presents in the morning, hang out in pj’s and eat simple prepared food such as ham sandwiches, shrimp platter, meatballs, meat/cheese/cracker trays, salad, cranberry salad and bread, cookies. Visit grandparents in the evening for more snacking and desserts. Begin having the wise men that belong to the children’s nativity start their trek through various rooms of the house towards their destination. We will also visit various friends and relatives through the season.

New Year’s Eve-go to the earlier Mass, order pizza and have family game night.

New Year’s Day-hot dogs, sauerkraut, mashed potatoes and dessert for good luck in the New Year.

Epiphany-We take turns with another family in having dinner at each other’s house, exchange our Christmas presents and play card games/visit. The wise men finally make it to the children’s nativity on this day after having been moved to various other locations in the house since Christmas. The week after Epiphany is spent putting the decorations away but the nativity scenes stay up until after we celebrate the Lord’s baptism.
 
I grew up in a French Canadian family. Oldest of 3, born 1953.

My earliest memories of the period before Christmas include an Advent calendar, religious theme, given to us by our Pastor who was also probably Mom & Dad’s best friend. This was hung on the door by the kitchen stove and we took turns opening the doors as Dad held us up to reach it. Interestingly, a few years ago in a fit of nostalgia I Googled “Advent calendars” and stumbled upon the site of a German company that made those calendars I remember so well. They are reissuing the ones they did in the '40s & ‘50s and I splurged on some for myself and grandsons and friends’ grandchildren.

Closer to Christmas we went with Dad into the woods to cut down a Christmas tree. The tree would sit outside in a bucket until the weekend before Christmas when it was brought into the house to thaw and be decorated the afternoon of either the 3rd or 4th Sunday of Advent depending on how early in the week Christmas was. Mom always said she enjoyed the anticipation of Christmas symbolized by the lit Christmas tree the week before. Always a nativity scene which, in the early years, Mom fashioned by draping blue satin between the shelves of a side table and setting up individual figurines. This was later replaced by a prefab one we were given by Fr. Sivret. It contained a music box that played “Silent Night”. My baby brother repeatedly beg for the thing to be wound up until he was old enough to do it himself.

The week before Christmas the house was filled with sweet smells as Mom baked her little heart out. Scotch cookies, caramel squares, etc. filled the cookie tins and held out promises of sweets to be enjoyed after Midnight Mass.

Christmas Eve was a day of fast and abstinence until the late 60s. Salt cod & potatoes was the evening meal.

We generally didn’t go to Midnight Mass until we were about 10 so we’d hang our stockings for “Baby Jesus” to fill and go to bed. Usually Mom went to Midnight Mass, so she could dedicate the next day to the meal prep, and Dad stayed home with us and kept the coal furnace stoked so the house was warm for the “réveillon” that followed Midnight Mass.
(continued)
 
Once Mass was over all the aunts and uncles and cousins and various family friends would end up at our house for the party. We’d be woken up (if we had actually ever gone to sleep) and brought down to open our presents to everyone’s delight. We would be able to enjoy the candies, nuts in the shell, chips, etc. that graced the coffee table, treats we didn’t normally get. Then there would be the feast of meat pie which we only had at Christmas time.

The party would often continue until 3 or 4 a.m. when everyone would go home and we’d go to bed for a few hours of sleep before it was time to get up and go to the 10 a.m. Mass with Dad. Sometimes we’d go to the rectory afterwards for a treat and a look at the Christmas tree “Tante Lou”, the priest’s housekeeper, had put up. It was there that we were first given Christmas crackers that made us jump at the sound, and that’s something I’ve always included in the table setting for Christmas dinner.

Noon was always just a snack (or more meat pie) and Christmas dinner was around 5 p.m. Friends would be in and out of the house all day, while we played with whatever new toy we’d been given, or I’d be curled up somewhere with a new book I’d received.

Never do I remember being just the nuclear family for dinner. Many of our friends had their Christmas dinner at noon so they joined us for a second Christmas dinner in the evening. Tante Lou and Fr. Sivret often joined us.

There was certainly a focus on Jesus throughout the whole season. Santa, or Père Noël as we knew him, was a peripheral character.

We spent time visiting other churches during the Christmas season, to see their decorations and nativity scenes. We always got a few coins to drop in the nodding angel’s bag.
 
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I love your family traditions! Thank you for sharing! #thingsconvertsdontknow
 
Some parishes have a family mass where the nativity procession into mass is lead by costumed children. (lots of shepherds and angels, lol.) It is usually the vigil mass at 5pm in our parish.
 
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