At Willoughby Church, as in many other others, Christmas, as well as Easter, is celebrated as a period of time, a season of the church year, rather than just a day. The Season of the Church Year associated with Christmas actually begins with the first Sunday of Advent, four Sundays before Christmas Day. Advent is marked by expectation and anticipation in preparing to celebrate the coming of Jesus. Christmas begins with Christmas Day December 25 and lasts for twelve days until Epiphany, January 6, which looks ahead to the mission of the church to the world in light of the Nativity.
The term "ephipany" means "to show" or "to make known" or even "to reveal." It remembers the coming of the wise men bringing gifts to visit the Christ child, who by so doing "reveal" Jesus to the world as Lord and King. The Wise Men or Magi who brought gifts to the child Jesus were the first Gentiles to acknowledge Jesus as "King" and so were the first to "show" or "reveal" Jesus to a wider world as the incarnate Christ. This act of worship by the Magi, which corresponded to Simeon’s blessing that this child Jesus would be "a light for revelation to the Gentiles" (Luke 2:32), was one of the first indications that Jesus came for all people, of all nations, of all races, and that the work of God in the world would not be limited to only a few.
The season of Epiphany (which is some churches extends until Ash Wednesday) is a time to focus on the mission of the church in reaching others by "showing" Jesus as the Saviour of all people. In celebrating Epiphany we recognize that the birth of Christ – the Word made flesh - involves much more than the drama of Christmas itself; it brings a vision of God’s glory to the nations of the world