This year, I decided to do something out of the ordinary. Our church actually had Christmas mass at midnight instead of at 10:00 PM on Christmas Eve. I haven't been to actual midnight mass AT midnight since I was in junior high. Even when I was an altar boy, we switched and had it earlier so people weren't staying up so late. But I think that defeats the purpose of midnight mass.
We tried going to a vigil mass about 10 years ago when Sarah was little and we had to get there almost two hours before mass began in order to get a seat in church (though that was before the church remodeling to make it larger). Sarah was a monster and wouldn't sit still so we never went back. I wasn't sure what to expect as far as a crowd so I made sure to get there early, a little more than an hour. When I got there, there were only about 15 people in the church. Mental note for next year... no need to get there so early. In fact, there were plenty of seats in the church at the time mass started (which was actually at 12:10 AM). The big "rush" of people got there about 11:40 PM so I was really early. It was nice though sitting in the dimmed church with the Christmas lights and nativity scene being the main lights with the music playing. It was really very relaxing. I almost fell asleep.
I remember things being a little different though from my time as an altar boy. I don't know if the way St. Anthony does things is just specific to the parish or if it's a whole, church wide thing. But I would like to see some of the traditions we had when I was a kid brought back, lighting the Advent Wreath before mass, bring the baby Jesus in and placing him in the manger at midnight mass, maybe a little more ceremonial things. But for now this will have to do.
We tried going to a vigil mass about 10 years ago when Sarah was little and we had to get there almost two hours before mass began in order to get a seat in church (though that was before the church remodeling to make it larger). Sarah was a monster and wouldn't sit still so we never went back. I wasn't sure what to expect as far as a crowd so I made sure to get there early, a little more than an hour. When I got there, there were only about 15 people in the church. Mental note for next year... no need to get there so early. In fact, there were plenty of seats in the church at the time mass started (which was actually at 12:10 AM). The big "rush" of people got there about 11:40 PM so I was really early. It was nice though sitting in the dimmed church with the Christmas lights and nativity scene being the main lights with the music playing. It was really very relaxing. I almost fell asleep.
I remember things being a little different though from my time as an altar boy. I don't know if the way St. Anthony does things is just specific to the parish or if it's a whole, church wide thing. But I would like to see some of the traditions we had when I was a kid brought back, lighting the Advent Wreath before mass, bring the baby Jesus in and placing him in the manger at midnight mass, maybe a little more ceremonial things. But for now this will have to do.
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