The Season of Christmas begins on the evening of 24 December and continues until the evening of 5 January (the Eve of the Epiphany of Our Lord). The Twelve Days of Christmas — nominally familiar from the popular Christmas song — are not the final shopping days leading up to the 25th of December, but are the span of time from the Feast of the Nativity to the Feast of the Epiphany. The focus of these holy days is on the Incarnation and appearing of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, conceived and born of the Woman, St. Mary (Galatians 4:4-5; Titus 2:11-14; 1 John 3:4-8). The seasonal Gradual of the three-year lectionary highlights this emphasis with the words of the Prophet Isaiah, also heard every year in the Old Testament Reading at Christmas Midnight: “To us a Child is born, to us a Son is given; and the government shall be upon His shoulder. And His Name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace” (Isaiah 9:6).
The Collect for Christmas Day likewise focuses on the Incarnation of our Lord, and especially on the purpose of His Nativity, namely, that the Son of God would save His people from their sins. It prays, “Almighty God, grant that the birth of Your only-begotten Son in the flesh may set us free from the bondage of sin” (LSB Altar Book, 849). That prayer echoes the significance of His Name, “Jesus” (St. Matthew 1:21), as indicated in the Holy Gospel on Christmas Eve.
The other Collects of the Christmas Season (all shared in common between the two lectionaries) encapsulate the Church’s confession, celebration, and encouragement throughout these days. On Christmas Eve and at Christmas Dawn, for example, the fulfillment of Advent is expressed in the prayer that the Christ, who has come in the flesh to save us, would prepare us for the judgment. On Christmas Eve: “Grant that as we joyfully receive Him as our Redeemer, we may with sure confidence behold Him when He comes to be our Judge” (LSB Altar Book, 845). Again, at Christmas Dawn we pray, “Grant Your people grace to put away fleshly lusts, that they may be ready for Your visitation” (LSB Altar Book, 847). In contrast to the anticipation of Advent, there is of course an emphasis on the historical fact of the Incarnation and the Nativity of Christ. Yet, there is also a strong affirmation of his ongoing presence as “Immanuel,” the God who is with us in the Flesh (Isaiah 7:14; St. Matthew 1:23). As we look forward to the celebration of His Cross and Resurrection, so do we savor His coming in the hope of our own bodily resurrection.
The Collect of the Day for Christmas Midnight confesses that God the Father has made “this most holy night to shine with the brightness of the true Light,” and on that basis it prays, “that as we have known the Mysteries of that Light on earth we may also come to the fullness of His joys in heaven” (LSB Altar Book, 846). This Collect resonates with a common Christmas motif in which the Lord Jesus comes down from heaven to enlighten us with the glory of the Father so that He might raise us from death to life and bring us back to the Father in His own Body of flesh and blood like ours. That theme is particularly prominent in the Holy Gospel on Christmas Day (St. John 1:1–18), and it is echoed in various hymns of the season, such as Luther’s “We Praise You, Jesus, at Your Birth” (LSB 382), Nicolaus Herman’s “Let All Together Praise Our God” (LSB 389), and Stephen Starke’s “O Sing of Christ” (LSB 362). It is in the only-begotten Son, “who for us men and our salvation came down from heaven and was incarnate by the Holy Spirit of the Virgin Mary” (Nicene Creed), that we know and love His God and Father as our own God and Father. So does the Church also confess with thanksgiving in the Christmas Proper Preface: “In the Mystery of the Word made Flesh You have given us a new revelation of Your glory that, seeing You in the person of Your Son, we may know and love those things which are not seen.”
The Collects for the First and Second Sundays after Christmas call upon the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ to accomplish in us the newness of life that is emphasized in many of the Epistles heard throughout the Christmas Season. The second of these Collects moves from a confession of the true Light of the incarnate Word, which God has poured into our hearts, to a prayer that “this Light may shine forth in our lives” (LSB Altar Book, 851). The Collect for the First Sunday after Christmas is an exquisite expression of the new creation in Christ Jesus, in whom we are raised from the death and damnation of our sin unto real life with God in body and soul: “O God, our Maker and Redeemer, You wonderfully created us and in the Incarnation of Your Son yet more wondrously restored our human nature. Grant that we may ever be alive in Him who made Himself to be like us” (LSB Altar Book, 850).
As God has first loved us and granted us life in His incarnate Son, so do we now live unto God and love one another in Him (1 John 4:7-16). For the grace and salvation of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, are “training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age,” a people “zealous for good works” (Titus 2:11-14). It is not that we should save ourselves by any works of righteousness that we have done, but as blessed heirs of God, “according to the hope of eternal life,” we are justified by His grace (Titus 3:4-7). No longer slaves to sin, we are sons of God in Christ (Galatians 4:4-7). By faith in His Gospel, we not only work in love for our neighbor, but we suffer as Christians for the Name of Christ Jesus, to the glory of God, because His Spirit rests upon us (1 Peter 4:12-19).