4Real Forums: How do you do Midnight Mass

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Topic: How do you do Midnight Mass

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LisaR
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Posted: Nov 22 2008 at 6:12pm \| IP Logged

donnalynn wrote:

The one Christmas Mass I will not attend is our 4:00pm Vigil - it is a mob scene.

Me, too! see, I think this has been so neat to read everyone's responses, what is the "perfect" Mass for one family will absolutely not work for another!!
If you say how rowdy and wiggly my crowd was , you'd think that the "childrens'S Mass" would be the one for us.
NOPE. this mama's temperment can NOT hack it, and frankly, my kids get over stimulated - big time.

I agree Sarah, I am so glad that we have many Mass times available for the vigil.

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ALmom
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Posted: Nov 22 2008 at 9:19pm \| IP Logged

Yep, it really does depend on the Mass and temperment. That being said, we have always attended Midnight Mass and the Easter Vigil. At least we drive. My mom used to wake us up and get us on our bicycles to make it to Midnight Mass. I'm not sure how we groggily managed to make it, but we did. I have memories of that being one of the most special things in the world. Sometimes our children have fallen asleep before getting dressed for Mass and we just take them as is - they are decent, in long pants and a shirt, just not the church suit. All of ours past 1st Communion age, manage to stay awake for the duration. The others are awake in some portion - to know they were at Mass and to see the creche. We go early for the carols, too. Now, my children and I are night owls and so we have rarely had to waken anyone up from sleep before Mass. Also my children are the type that have never slept in their own bed, it seems, so they sleep as easily in a church pew as on my living room floor or at grandmas on the floor/sofa. We used to joke that we needed to tape chaos in order to get them to sleep at night - it was just too quiet. I'm sure that helps the whole midnight Mass thing. I usually get to sit and sink in the joy and extra quiet afterwards because of the youngest falling asleep during Mass.

Our children, would absolutely not let us miss the Midnight Mass or the Easter vigil and we have to process in too. They are usually talking about aspects beforehand in anticipation. Both of these are highlights of the feast. We let each and every child hold a candle at the Easter Vigil - we just watch closely and will blow out early and share our own if necessary. That one is more crowded and we make sure the youngers are in the aisle seats so they have a place to sit where they can see. But our parishes here have so many evening liturgies prior to Midnight that the least attended and least crowded Mass is the Midnight one, followed by Christmas morning. There have been some odd things at the early evening vigils in the past and these are the ones I'd avoid most. What I've really wanted to do, but cannot yet due to children's ages and need for sleep, is get up the next day and go to the early morning Christmas Mass after the Midnight one - and the Easter morning Mass after the Vigil. We wouldn't be able to find seats on Easter morning together, however, and we'd have crabbiness for several days if we did that.

Oh, one other rule we have to make life possible going to the Midnight Mass. Until the children are all awake, no one can wake us up and NO ONE is allowed downstairs. They are also not supposed to wake each other up - but lets say the play and conversations will generally awaken most of the littles at about the same time at which time we may go ahead and wake up olders. At least no one pulls stunts like pulling covers off or dousing someone with water. They will almost always sleep in to close to 11 at least. When all children are awake they gather in our room and then we process down with our very special baby Jesus (my husband puts in the outside one after Midnight Mass so that we see it as we drive home after Midnight Massn and we celebrate by some special treat - hot chocolate or something totally insane and out of character then) singing, read the nativity, eat breakfast and.... then get into stockings and other such sometime late in the afternoon. My parents always stop to visit us last and we are usually barely finished with breakfast.

Guess every family has their own traditions and most would think we were torturous to delay for so long on Christmas, but the children even as they ask, would be totally disappointed if we altered our routine. I think we are an odd bunch and it shows in our celebrations as well as our strange dinner conversations and inside jokes.

Janet

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