Within the Christian church, there is a special way of marking time called The Christian Year. It is within this sacred pattern of time that followers of Jesus are encouraged to rehearse the story of God in their personal and corporate worship.
The Christian Year begins with the season of Advent. A season to anticipate the coming of Jesus. Not just remembering his coming in Bethlehem, but drawing our attention to his second coming as King of kings and Lord of lords.
Advent leads us to the season of Christmas. Christmas is a festive and joyous season. It’s a time to celebrate the Light of the world coming to dispel the darkness. The Christmas season begins on Christmas day, December 25, and lasts until January 5, the day before Epiphany. Unfortunately, this season of the church year has been widely misunderstood and the commercialization of Christmas has created a distorted view of this season. Today, Christmas is popularly believed to end, not begin, on December 25, taking away the impact and importance of not only Advent, but also the feast of Epiphany following Christmas. The fact of the matter is that the season of Christmas begins on December 25 and lasts for twelve days—“on the first day of Christmas my true love gave to me . . .” This is not simply an entertaining song to sing, but a historical understanding of the Christmas season and evidence that at some point in time Christmas truly was celebrated as twelve days, not just one.
The primary meaning of Christmas is that we not only celebrate Jesus born in Bethlehem, but Christ crucified, risen, and returning—and Christ born in us. This perspective invites Christmas to be a very important time in our spiritual lives. The fact that God became man—the Word became flesh (John 1:14)—gives us an opportunity to be united with God. Because Jesus was united to God, we, through our union with Jesus in faith are united with God. Our spiritual lives are formed, and we experience unity with the Triune God.
Observing the Christmas season then, has great spiritual value in strengthening spiritual formation.
The Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. John 1:14