Christmas Season not just a day

"The Christmas season celebrates the birth of Jesus (on December 25) and continues until the Baptism of Our Lord." http://www.easterbrooks.com/personal/calendar/rules.html


Christmas is traditionally celebrated as an octave. Today we celebrate the Feast of the Holy Family and remember the fight to Egypt and its cause. We don't know how old Jesus was when this event took place. The take home message commonly is an intertwining of obedience and trust. How families are (ideally) places where one can trust that the others have your best interest at heart. And that trusting and obeying God is not unlike a child's obedience to his parents. He might not always understand why they ask something of him. But he knows that they have his best interest at heart and so obeys on this basis.
http://www.catholicculture.org/lit/calendar/day.cfm


A great discussion of the seasonality of the Christian calendar is here:
http://www.kensmen.com/catholic/time.html "Unlike pagan religions which see time as an endless cycle, Christians see time as being linear; it has a beginning and will have an end. Within Christianity's linear, "big picture" sense of time, though, the passing of hours is experienced as cycles of meditations on holy things (think of a spiral -- of a circle of time moving ever forward toward His Coming). The Catholic year (the "liturgical year") is made special by celebrations commemorating the lives of Jesus and His mother, the angels, and the legion of Saints who lived their faith.

Every single year, aware Catholics "re-live" the Gospel, from Christ's birth to His Ascension and Heavenly reign. In Spring He enters the world by coming to rest in Mary's immaculate womb; nine months later, in Winter, He is born, circumcized, and given a Name. He is raised in the Holy Family, and meets His cousin, John. He goes into the Desert and we go with Him during our Lenten Season. Then follow His Passion and Agony, which are soon vanquished by His Resurrection, His Ascension, and the Pentecost. Now He reigns -- and forever, and we await His Second Coming as we prepare to celebrate again His First Coming. The cycle begins again, like a wheel that's been spinning for two millenia. The Catholic who is aware of this wheel is necessarily aware of Christ; the Catholic who also celebrates the Feasts well and practices the traditions of the Church lives intimately with Him.. All of the Church's Feasts fall into one of the 2 main "liturgical cycles" made of 7 "liturgical seasons." Each of the Seasons has an associated mood, its own "feeling in the air," its own scents and ornaments. There is even for each Season an associated color which will be reflected in the priests' vestments and liturgical art, church decoration, and so on (though on certain Holy Days within a particular season, that Day's color will take precedence over the season's color). "