Ultimate Christmas
The Burying of Christmas
Christmas Spirit Is Laid to Rest—Till Next Year
About Ultimate Christmas
For the rest of the world, Christmas wrapped up around December 27, maybe January 6, if they’re liturgically inclined. But we have held it close for 120 full days, carrying Christmas through bonfires and craft nights, jazz brunches and metaphysical cupcakes. We’ve carried it into graveyards, food courts, and velvet-clad naps. And now, at last, even we must admit: it’s time. Today, we bury Christmas. Take the poinsettia you’ve been nursing since November—spindly, clinging to one last red leaf—and plant it in the ground. As you dig the hole, imagine it as the resting place for your Christmas spirit. It’s not dead, just dormant. You can do this quietly, singing one last carol under your breath, or you can go big: candles, mulled wine, a choir, readings from A Christmas Carol, and a velvet-lined coffin for the last gingerbread man. When you’re done, pat the soil and take heart. The cycle begins again in only 245 days. Merry Christmas! 281
Adornments
Listen
In Dulci Jubilo (Traditional)
A joyful, medieval carol of German and Latin origin. Written in the 1300s, the title means “In sweet rejoicing.” Its text alternates between Latin and German, celebrating the infant Jesus and the Virgin Mary.
Lo, How a Rose E’er Blooming (Traditional)
Known in English by this title, it began as the German carol “Es ist ein Ros entsprungen.” It is a gentle Marian hymn dating to before the 17th century.
Coventry Carol (Traditional)
A haunting Christmas lullaby dating to the 1500s. Its minor-key melody and archaic English invoke the Magi story’s mournful side: it is sung from the perspective of a mother hiding her child from King Herod.
Read
The Gospel According to John 1:1-5, 14
The prologue to John’s Gospel opens not with a nativity but with a cosmic overture: “In the beginning was the Word.” In just a few verses, it evokes creation, incarnation, and the persistence of light in darkness. “The light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not.” On this day of Ultimate Christmas, these lines offer a solemn close, an assertion that the mystery at the heart of Christmas is neither fragile nor passing. The Word became flesh and dwelt among us. The light remains, even as the season ends.