When does Christmas end?

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KendraDZ1902

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Does it end on the Epiphany or does it end on the Baptism of the Lord? The Great Google has given me those two answers. lol.
 
stephe1987 said:
The USCCB calendar for Christmas season ends on the feast of the baptism of the lord.
usccb.org/prayer-and-worship/liturgical-resources/christmas/index.cfm
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Correct.

The classic “twelve days of Christmas” end with Epiphany, but to my knowledge this is a popular concept not an official liturgical one. Also in the United States, tragically in my opinion, Epiphany is transferred to a Sunday thus creating a new gulf between our culture and history on the one hand and the Church on the other.
 
The Christmas season ends on the Sunday after the Epiphany, which is the feast of the Baptism of Our Lord. But the Christmas cycle ends on the 40th day after Christmas, which is the feast of the Presentation of Our Lord in the Temple and the Purification of Our Lady. In our parish, the creche remains up until that day.
 
In some European countries, were children not given presents on the Feast of the Epiphany? If yes, what was the Catholic significance?
 
CyrilSebastian said:
In some European countries, were children not given presents on the Feast of the Epiphany? If yes, what was the Catholic significance?
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We always referred to the Feast of the Epiphany as “Little Christmas” because it signified when the Wise men finally made it to the manager. We don’t exchange gifts, but we don’t take down our Christmas decorations until then.
 
If you follow a traditional calendar, the Christmas season ends with Candlemas. 😃
 
Looking at all the posts, I am sure you realised that there is more than one answer. A link to shed some light.

A lot depends on the context of your question. If you mean when the liturgy in your missal switches to Ordinary Sundays, that would be the Saturday before the Feast of the Baptism of the Lord, which is the first Sunday in Ordinary Time. Until then, your missal is still in Christmastide.

Traditionally, of course the 12 days of Christmas in the West end with Epiphany. But then, Ephiphany starts off the Ephiphany cycle, which some consider to be still part of Christmas cycle. The Epiphany cycle ends on Feb 2 with Feast of the Presentation of Our Lord (aka Groundhog Day), which celebrates the presentation of baby Jesus at the Temple in accordance with Jewish laws, 40 days after his birthday. Some people traditionally leave Christmas decorations up until that day because it is the definitive last day of the Christmas season (or is that just an excuse?).

Then there is the problem of the Eastern Christmas. This gets very confusing as originally the Eastern Church celebrated Christmas on Epiphany Day (Epiphany is actually an older festival than Christmas), Jan 6, which the Armenian Church still do today. The other Eastern Churches moved Christmas to Dec 25 but they (non-Armenians) are still using the old Julian calendar (the one replaced by the Gregorian calendar that we use today), which is 13 days behind ours. So, their Christmas Day (Dec 25 in their Julian calendar) falls on Jan 7 in our calendar. Still following me?

In short the Eastern Churches (except the Armenians and some who use the Gregorian calendar) celebrate Christmas on Jan 7 in our calendar and end the season on Epiphany 12 days later on Jan 18 in our calendar.

What I still don’t know is about the the Armenians, who celebrate Christmas on Epiphany Day - do they still have 12 days of Christmas?
 
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