Catholic Activity: Christmas Candle

Christmas is the season of lights. Here are some suggestions in incorporating candles into our Christmas celebration. This is also called the Christ Candle.

DIRECTIONS

It seems to have been the habit on Christmas-eve to try to turn night into day. Before candles came into general use, enormous logs, Christmas blocks, as they were called, were lighted and so long as they burned, all meals taken in their light and warmth were as festive as the family purse allowed. With the coming of candles the light of the Christmas block was added to by outsize candles which decorated the dining tables. These candles were lighted for meals every day until Twelfth-day, the official end of Christmas. There is no reason why we should not substitute as many candles as we can get for electric light during these twelve Christmas days. Christmas is the feast of lights, and the very novelty of having all meals at a candle-lit table cannot help but bring it more clearly to one's mind. During these twelve days, too, it can be a regular reminder of the coming of Christ, if at all meals one place is left empty for Christ, and the largest candle of all burns before it.

Activity Source: Candle is Lighted, A by P. Stewart Craig, The Grail, Field End House, Eastcote, Middlesex, 1945