The Christmas season rightly lasts through the Epiphany, and when this solemnity is observed on January 6 we have the traditional “Twelve Days” of Christmas. More officially, Christmastide comes to an end with the Commemoration of the Baptism of Our Lord on January 13 (or the First Sunday after Epiphany), after which the gold or white of the Christmas season gives way to the green of Ordinary Time or Epiphanytide. However, in a spiritual sense ,Christmas festivity lasts until the Feast of the Presentation of the Lord (Candlemas), forty days after Christmas, when all celebrations of Christ's Childhood yield to preparation for Lent.

Christmas, together with Easter, retains its Octave, and thus the celebration of the solemnity extends throughout the following seven days.

The Christmas Wreath replaces the Advent Wreath, displaying four white candles and a central Christ Candle, all of which burn for the Masses of Christmastide.

The Gloria prominently returns to the Mass.

The Gospel reading for Christmas Day is the Prologue of the Gospel According to John. At every other Mass in Christmastide and Epiphanytide (until Candlemas), it is customary that the celebrant says this Gospel at the end of Mass from the Altar as the Last Gospel or the so-called “Sarum Recessional Chant” (see DWM 1058).