Christ is Born Printables

Just playing around with some new printables today. Above is just a full page saying, "Christ is born." Below, the design is shrunk for gift labels or Christmas cards that would be nice on card stock.

Celebrating the Nativity

I grew up enjoying Christmas with family, special foods, and visits from Santa. It was always lovely and special, but it was a secular holiday. That might sound odd if you love nativity sets and midnight mass, but many Christians just don't celebrate religious holidays. Maybe they think Christmas trees are pagan, or that Christ wasn't born in winter, or wonder where the bible says you should celebrate Christmas? 

Now my family celebrates the birth of Christ without reservation. The beauty of the incarnation is that just as Mary held God in her arms, just as she pressed her cheek to His, we can know Christ dearly too. God is with us! What better reason to celebrate? If you're still a little unsure about it all, I've written a little about the origins of what we do and why.

1. "Christmas" or "The Nativity According to the Flesh..."
The word "Christmas" is a shortened form of "Christ's Mass" from the Latin, meaning the celebration of the Eucharist (or the Divine Liturgy) on the feast of Christ. We officially call it, "The Nativity according to the flesh of our Lord, God and Savior Jesus Christ" or just "Nativity" because we are celebrating the Incarnation: when Christ who was God before the ages became flesh for our sake.

So, the celebration of Christmas began as a church service. At our parish, the Christmas vigil begins late at night on Christmas Eve followed immediately by the Divine Liturgy. The timing means that we share in the Eucharist around midnight, welcoming Christ's birth. This makes a long, but joyful, service as we sing the canon, "Christ is born, glorify him!" and children fall asleep on the floor.  We break the fast together at church with sausage balls, spanakopita, chocolate, and other foods we've been missing, then hurry on to bed. When everyone wakes up the next morning, we enjoy the usual presents and time with family, and we rejoice to find the baby Christ in the manger.

2. Advent
We prepare for this service with a 40 day fast, which is called "The Nativity Fast" or "Philip's Fast" (because it begins after his feast day on November 14). More commonly in the West, it is called "Advent" meaning "coming" because the whole season is preparing us for the coming of Christ. (Western Christians have a shorter Advent beginning on December 1st.)

The 40 day fast began in imitation of Lent and Pascha (along with other liturgical parallels). In the early church, the big feasts like Pascha and Christmas were baptismal feasts. So the 40 day fasts were a time when the catechumens prepared for baptism, and the Church prepared to receive them, through prayer, fasting, and almsgiving.

So, we see both the preparation for baptism and for the coming of Christ in this season. While Lent is penitent, Advent is a joyful fast with fish and wine allowed on the weekends. Its also full of fun activities that prepare us for the coming of Christ like gift-making, keeping a Jesse Tree, or preparing a manger or nativity scene for Christ, as well as celebrations of a few special days like St. Nicholas Day and St. Lucia Day. We spend the whole season making ready, as one of my favorite hymns says,

"Make ready, O Bethlehem; for Eden hath been opened for all."

[A side note: American Thanksgiving falls within the fast, and obviously, that wasn't a consideration when they began the fast in ancient lands. But its a beautiful holiday, and so our bishops encourage Americans to relax the fast and celebrate by giving thanks.] 

3. Was Jesus really born on December 25th?

Even though the calendar is rooted in historical events, it is primarily liturgical. It doesn't depend upon his actual date of birth. One explanation for this date is that it is exactly 9 months from the feast of the Annunciation on March 25th, or the conception of Christ. This feast was celebrated very early, and its date was chosen in relation to the date of Christ's death because of the ancient concept of "integral age."

A second theory is that the date was chosen to replace the pagan feast of the Unconquered Sun as an opportunity to introduce pagans to the true Son. The hymns illustrate this beautifully, "For by it, those who worshipped the stars were taught by a Star to adore You, The Sun of Righteousness, and to know You, the Orient from on High. O Lord, glory to You!" (Source) Christmas lights are similarly reminders of Christ, the true light.

Some Christians are scandalized that the early church may have replaced a pagan holiday with a Christian one. I must ask, then, how is it better for us to take a clearly Christian holiday and secularize it? Either way, the purpose of the celebration is theological, not necessarily historical, and show the church finding ways to redeem the time. (Source)

[Many Orthodox Christians still use the Julian calendar which differs by 13 days. So, they celebrate the Nativity on January 7th, but the reasoning is the same.]

4. Why We Have Religious Holidays 
So why do we have any holidays? Is that in the bible? The Jews had a rich liturgical calendar and Jewish Christians initially continued to keep those feasts (see, for example, Acts 12:3, 20:16, 27:9). The Jewish Passover was clearly imbued with new meaning in Christ's resurrection (I Cor. 5:7), and became a distinctly Christian feast by the 2nd century. During the persecutions of the early church, local communities commemorated the martyrs with celebrations on the anniversary of their death. In the 4th century, with the legalization of Christianity, feasts celebrating occasions in the earthly life of Christ became popular especially on the supposed historical sites of the events, and this is when the feast of the Nativity arose. (Source) The remembrance of these holy days were the beginning of the liturgical calendar, which developed somewhat organically as the church deemed what was instructive and beneficial to the ongoing life of the church.

Its interesting that Christ himself celebrated Hannukah (John 10:22ff), a holiday which commemorated an important event in the community, but was not commanded with the other feasts in the Old Testament. If Christ only followed explicit biblical commands, he wouldn't have gone to the temple for that feast. But the life of faith is richer than mere law-keeping, its the sanctification of all things. In the same way, the church calendar is the celebration of God's saving work within time.

The liturgical calendar is like the most beautiful church school curriculum, worship plan, and memorial service combined. In the course of a year, the average liturgical Christian will learn theology by singing the hymns of the feasts; she will hear how the Old Testament is fulfilled by Christ through the scripture readings; see the many ways that the light of Christ can be shown in our lives by hearing the lives of the saints; and grow in understanding of all of Christ's saving work through his incarnation, ministry, death, and resurrection. More on the liturgical calendar here.

5. The 12 Days of Christmas
While most Americans start celebrating Christmas sometime in November (or before), Orthodox Christians fast to prepare for this feast. But, not to worry, when the feast arrives, we celebrate for 12 days! Since Christmas and Theophany were linked from the beginning, the 12 days between them became the festal period, full of caroling, food, and decorations. So you don't have to take your tree down until January 6! (Fr. Andrew has a more detailed and humorous take on the length of Christmas here.)

Christopsomo!

6. St. Nicholas and Stockings
We can't leave out St. Nick! He is known for his generosity, especially in the story of St. Nicholas tossing gold coins through the window into stockings (or shoes) of three poor maidens. Because this great saint is remembered during Advent, he became associated with Christmas.

The Puritans who came to America opposed religious holidays, and so they celebrated a secular version of Christmas. Later, when other colonists brought over traditions of St. Nicholas celebrations, he was gradually secularized and mixed into the American Christmas celebration. Clement C. Moore's classic poem, "A Visit from St. Nicholas" solidified the new image of the secret, gift-giving elf, instead of a bishop. Source

Even though many Americans don't think of the ancient Bishop of Myra, they still put out stockings and he still fills them! Orthodox families incorporate St. Nicholas (or Santa) into their celebrations in many different ways, but the Church remembers him on his own feast day on December 6. Its worth learning about this historical saint and incorporating his feast day into your celebrations!

We leave our shoes out for St. Nicholas on the evening of
December 5 with carrots for his donkey!

So, don't worry about the historical accuracy of the December 25th; you can keep celebrating into January; and yes, Virginia, there is a St. Nicholas. May your Christmas be filled with with anticipation, joy, and thanksgiving because truly God is with us! Christ is born!

Celebrating Christ on Christmas

I grew up enjoying Christmas with family, special foods, and visits from Santa, and now my family enjoys celebrating the birth of Christ on this day. For me, the beauty of the incarnation is that, as Mary held God in her arms, we can know Him dearly, too. God is with us! What better reason to celebrate Christmas? Earlier this year, I wrote about the Christian origins of Easter, and I thought I'd do the same for Christmas.

1. "Christmas" or "The Nativity According to the Flesh..."
Most people know that the word "Christmas" is a shortened form of "Christ's Mass" from the Latin. The name of this feast in the Eastern Orthodox Church is officially "The Nativity according to the flesh of our Lord, God and Savior Jesus Christ." Admittedly, this is quite a mouthful, and it is casually called "Nativity" or "Christmas" by most American Orthodox Christians. Still, the name points to the theological importance of the feast: Christ, who was God before the ages, was born as a child for our sake, as proclaimed in the kontakion of the feast.

I love Christmas carols, byzantine hymns included! You can hear the 
rich theology in the English (1:10) which is so beautifully chanted.

2. Why We Have Religious Holidays 
Jewish Christians initially kept the Jewish calendar of feasts (see, for example, Acts 12:3, 20:16, 27:9). The Jewish Passover was clearly imbued with new meaning in Christ's resurrection (I Cor. 5:7), and became a distinctly Christian feast by the 2nd century. At the same time, during the persecutions of the early church, local communities commemorated the martyrs with celebrations on the anniversary of their death. The remembrance of these holy days were the beginning of the liturgical calendar, which developed somewhat organically as the church deemed what was instructive and beneficial to the ongoing life of the church. During the 4th century, with the legalization of Christianity, feasts celebrating occasions in the earthly life of Christ became popular especially on the actual or supposed historical sites of the events, and this is when the feast of the Nativity arose. Source

The liturgical calendar is like the most beautiful church school curriculum, worship plan, and memorial service combined. In the course of a year, the average liturgical Christian will learn theology by singing the hymns of the feasts; she will hear how the Old Testament is fulfilled by Christ through the scripture readings; see the many ways that the light of Christ can be shown in our lives by hearing the lives of the saints; and grow in understanding of all of Christ's saving work through his incarnation, ministry, death, and resurrection. More on the Orthodox liturgical calendar, and a cool infographic.

3. December 25th

Remember the calendar is primarily liturgical, even though it is rooted in historical events, so it doesn't mean that Christ was actually born on December 25th. The early church initially celebrated the feast of Theophany, or God's revelation of himself to us on January 6th. Later, the various aspects of God's self-revelation were separated into two feasts. Theophany, celebrating the public manifestation of the Trinity at Christ's baptism, remained on January 6th, and Christ's humble and hidden birth was celebrated on December 25th.

One theory is that the date was chosen to replace the pagan feast of the Unconquered Sun as an opportunity to introduce pagans to the true Son, or else to use the winter solstice as a reference to Christ. The hymns illustrate this beautifully, "For by it, those who worshipped the stars were taught by a Star to adore You, The Sun of Righteousness, and to know You, the Orient from on High. O Lord, glory to You!" (Source) Christmas lights are similarly reminders of Christ, the true light.

A second reason for this date is that it is exactly 9 months from the feast of the Annunciation on March 25th. This feast was celebrated very early, and its date was chosen in relation to the date of Christ's death because of the ancient concept of "integral age." [Many Orthodox Christians still use the Julian calendar which differs by 13 days. So, they celebrate the Nativity on January 7th, but the reasoning is the same.]

Both reasons are theological in nature, not necessarily historical, and show the church finding ways to redeem the time. (Source)

The Gospel Reading during the Liturgy for the  Nativity 

4. Christmas Services

Since Christmas began as the celebration of Christ's birth, it began as a church service. In the Orthodox Church, Christmas services are modeled after the services of Pascha, because we understand Christ's death and resurrection to be the cause of all things. (Orthodoxwiki) Like Pascha, we begin the season with a 40 day fast (often called Advent), and end it with an evening vigil and feast. (Western Christians have a shorter Advent beginning on December 1st.) Advent is also full of fun activities that prepare us for the coming of Christ like gift-making, almsgiving, keeping a Jesse Tree, or preparing a manger or nativity scene for Christ. (I really really love this season, so you'll find lots of stuff here under the Nativity-related tags.)

At our parish, the Christmas vigil is late at night on Christmas Eve followed immediately by the Divine Liturgy. The timing means that we are sharing in the Eucharist around midnight, welcoming Christ's birth. This makes a long, but joyful, service as we sing the canon, "Christ is born, glorify him!" and children fall asleep on the floor.  We break the fast together at church with sausage balls, spanakopita, chocolate, and other foods we've been missing, then hurry on to bed. When everyone wakes up the next morning, we enjoy the usual presents and time with family, and we rejoice to find the baby Christ in the manger.

baby not-sleeping during the Nativity vigil

5. The 12 Days of Christmas
While most Americans start celebrating Christmas sometime in November (or before), Orthodox Christians fast to prepare for this feast. But, not to worry, when the feast arrives, we celebrate for 12 days! Since Christmas and Theophany were linked from the beginning, the 12 days between them became the festal period, full of caroling, food, and decorations. So you don't have to take your tree down until January 6! (Fr. Andrew has a more detailed and humorous take on the length of Christmas here.)

Christopsomo!

6. St. Nicholas and Stockings
I've written about St. Nicholas many times before, so I'll be brief now. Because this great saint is remembered during Advent, he became associated with Christmas. He is known for his generosity, especially in the story of St. Nicholas tossing gold coins through the window into stockings of three poor maidens. Orthodox families incorporate St. Nicholas (or Santa) into their celebrations in many different ways, but the Church remembers him liturgically on December 6. Its worth learning about this historical saint and incorporating his feast day into your celebrations!

St. Nicholas is our church's patron, so we have a big festival every year!

So, don't worry about the historical accuracy of the December 25th; you can keep celebrating into January; and yes, Virginia, there is a St. Nicholas. May your Christmas be filled with with anticipation, joy, and thanksgiving! Christ is born!

Gift Bread

Baking Christopsomo today for gifts. I get such a kick out of making this cool bread that looks like the bow is baked into it. After the second rise, I called the girls over to see, saying, "Look how nicely my bread has risen." J promptly responded, "Christ is risen!" Ah, yes, God is with us!

Christopsomo (or Greek Christmas Bread) - adapted from the Sunset Cookbook of Breads [The bow idea is from the same book, but for the recipe for German Kuchen]

blend:
2 packages active dry yeast
1/2 cup warm water

Combine:
1/2 cup scalded and cooled milk
1 cup butter
4 eggs
3/4 cup sugar
1 tsp salt

Add yeast mixture and gradually add 6-7 cups unsifted flour.
Knead for 10 minutes on floured board
Let rise 2 hours or until double.

Punch down and divide into 6 small balls. Brush butter around outside, and tie each ball with a strip of brown paper (the same width as your ribbon - for small loaves like mine use a skinny ribbon) and place on greased baking sheets. Let rise 1 hour or until doubled. Bake 30-35 minutes in a 350 degree oven.

Serve warm, or toasted with honey.

Making Ready for the Nativity

Nativity table begun! 

I can't wait! I love getting out all of our little ornaments and mangers and nativity scenes and talking to the children about softening our hearts. For my non-Orthodox friends, we do Christmas a little differently - we fast 40 days before Christmas, so we try to avoid too many treats and parties and focus instead on prayer, fasting, and almsgiving. But we still celebrate the fast with much joy and anticipation! And because we start early, I have to hold myself back a little, and not pull out all the things on November 15. I know some people feel like the activities and crafts are too much pressure this time of year, but for me it is a joy. And most of my work was done in years past, so I keep it pretty simple now. Here's my plan:

Celebrating the Nativity Fast, Feast and 12 days

At the start of the fast (Nov. 15): Put up a simple garland on the fireplace for our Jesse tree ornaments, and get out our empty manger to start our manger activity (we're making a soft place to welcome Christ through acts of kindness). Also, put up our Nativity Countdown Printable to keep track of the days. Make a meal plan and put that on the fridge, as well.

The girls and I will be reading through the books of Luke and Acts in the mornings during the fast. And we're looking forward to praying the Advent Paraklesis at church on Wednesdays during the fast.

On St. Nicholas Day (Dec 5/6): Put out our shoes for St. Nicholas, and find them filled with treats in the morning. Later in the day we will put up our Christmas tree!

On St. Lucia Day (Dec. 13): Put up lights in the kitchen window to remember our saint of light. We'll also make Lucia buns to take and share at church.

The Sunday of the Holy Forefathers (Dec. 13): Get out our toy nativity set to play with as we approach Christmas. Our ongoing Jesse Tree activity teaches the meaning of this Sunday, so I'll briefly talk about this to the kids on the way to Liturgy. All the stories we've been reading point to Christ, listen to the hymns and readings today to see how many of the Old Testament stories you know!

Christmas Eve (Dec. 24): This year, we'll celebrate Christmas here at our own mission church for the first time. We're very excited about celebrating in our own town with all of our people (and about not having to drive late at night). The Liturgy starts late, after 10 PM - don't forget to take a nap!

On Christmas Day (Dec. 25): Find our baby Jesus in the manger! Open presents and eat sausage balls and other goodies! I've seen an old custom to eat your Christmas Dinner with straw on the table under a linen table cloth. I've always wanted to do that (how memorable for the children!) so maybe this year will be the year!

The Twelve Days of Christmas (Dec. 25 - Jan. 5): This is the time we usually spend with family, doing the laid back celebrating. We make sure to eat lots of goodies and do lots of singing during this time. We usually end up doing all of the Jesse Tree readings for this period all at once, and usually the night before Theophany.

New Years/St. Basil's Day (Jan. 1): We are often just getting back home from our travels. We'll enjoy a lazy day unpacking, and bake a vasilopita using my favorite recipe.

Theophany (Jan. 6): I love this service at church with the Great Blessing of the Water. We'll drink whatever Holy Water we have left and take our cleaned bottles to church to fill with new water. After Theophany, we'll put away the tree and clean house to get ready for our house blessing!

How beautifully the church calendar rolls around again and again. Thank God!

New 40 Day Nativity Fast Printable

40 Days to Christmas - printable

Last year I made a quick nativity printable to count the 40 days leading to the birth of Christ. This year, I wanted to make it a bit prettier. My oldest daughter sat down with me and helped me decide just how to make it, and I think we're both pretty happy with it. As usual, I can't just do one thing - I also made a black and white version if you want to let the kids color their own... and then I made a version with only 25 stars for my non-Orthodox friends.

This works great as a last minute advent calendar if you don't already have one, or to accompany your Jesse Tree readings so you can quickly see your progress. We will put ours on our fridge and probably X, count, or otherwise draw on the days as we go. We also used a magnet last year, but it was often knocked out of place, so writing seems to work best. :)

Just grab the png and print. Enjoy!

25 days to Christmas - printable

25 days to Christmas - coloring page

40 days to Christmas - coloring page

cross-posted on We Wilsons

Koulourakia

A friend of mine asked me to try his recipe for Koulourakia. And given my love for baking things in funny shapes, I've made these many times now. They're kind of like the Christmas butter cookies I grew up with, but not nearly as dry. Plus, they're super pretty with sesame seeds sprinkled on top, and they go nicely with hot coffee in the morning. 

There appear to be as many variations of this recipe as there are Greek bloggers. :) This recipe is close to the one I used, but this one is nice, too, with lots of pictures. I took some pictures to show how I twisted the shapes. A good recipe will make a strong dough that's not too sticky so they twist up quickly and nicely. 

Pascha Bread and Doughnuts

One thing I love about the Bread in Five book is that I get to try a bunch of new recipes at once.  I made the brioche dough finally, and made several recipes from it.

The first recipe I made was a plain brioche, braided. I thought I should keep the first loaf simple, although I couldn't resist an attempt at braiding. It was much easier than I expected. I forgot to take a picture of the final loaf, but isn't it pretty anyway? This isn't the same as the recipe for Tsoureki (Greek Easter Bread), but its very rich and pretty, so I thought it would make a nice Pascha bread anyway.

And this recipe dough recipe is perfect for another feasting favorite: doughnuts - which I've successfully made before with the regular dough, but its much yummier with the brioche. I have to admit I was a little hesitant about deep frying, but it was so worth it. It's basically the same as the beignets recipe, but who can resist the donut shape? I rolled my dough and then cut my circles with a biscuit cutter. I needed a very small circle for the hole, so I used the top of a glass bottle to cut out the centers, which I thought worked quite well.

These are long gone, of course, and I think it maybe time to try another batch...

Christopsomo

I am making a second batch of this incredible bread today. I was making some as gifts, and then John and I ended up eating too much - so now I have to make more. I chose this recipe because it's Christmas-y, and new, and I had all the ingredients... who knew it was going to be the most wonderful bread I've ever made. That's probably because of the buckets of butter and eggs in it, but that's what makes it Christmas bread, I suppose.

Traditionally, it's made with a cross on top, which I didn't do because I've been wanting to make gift bread this way for as long as I've had this bread cookbook. You tie the loaf with a strip of brown paper before the second rise, and then replace it with a real ribbon after it's baked.


After looking online at other Christmas Bread recipes, I realized this version is maybe a little simpler than most. Here it is, with my changes in the loaf style:

Christopsomo (or Greek Christmas Bread)

blend:
2 packages active dry yeast
1/2 cup warm water

Combine:
1/2 cup scalded and cooled milk
1 cup butter
4 eggs
3/4 cup sugar
2 teaspoons crushed anise
1 tsp salt

Add yeast mixture and gradually add 6-7 cups unsifted flour.
Knead for 10 minutes on floured board
Let rise 2 hours or until double.

Punch down and divide into 6 small balls. Brush butter around outside, and tie each ball with a strip of brown paper (the same width as your ribbon - for small loaves like mine use a skinny ribbon) and place on greased baking sheets. Let rise 1 hour or until doubled. Bake 30-45 minutes in a 350 degree oven.

Serve warm, or toasted with honey.