The Catholic Register's final special section of the year is our Christmas issue! Click here to read all of our holiday special features.

I found myself rushing through a grocery store on a busy Friday afternoon at the end of an arduous week. There was Christmas music blaring throughout the store, my stomach was grumbling and I was frantically picking my way through the produce section before I had to be at work.

ISTANBUL – Sami Dankha, his three brothers and their families used to kick off Christmas celebrations by attending a packed Christmas Eve Mass at St. Thomas Church in Baghdad. Wearing brand new clothes and sporting fresh haircuts, they would spend the night chatting, singing and eating pacha, a dish made from sheep's head that Iraqis consider a delicacy and a staple of Christmas.

Where I am able to organize things — in my parish, at the chaplaincy — we sing Advent hymns in Advent. But otherwise, Christmas concerts are the order of the day by early December. And so it was that last Saturday I had the privilege of attending the annual Christmas concert of St. Michael’s Choir School in the afternoon at Massey Hall, and then the Christmas pageant (“Gaudy” to employ the local nomenclature) at Massey College in the evening.

At a major-league baseball playoff game in Toronto last year, after a questionable umpiring call, disgruntled spectators started throwing beer cans onto the field of play.

In the Scripture readings for the Second Sunday of Advent, two of the three outstanding Advent guides (Isaiah, John the Baptist and Mary) show us the proper attitude to assume as we prepare to welcome the Saviour of the world.

VATICAN CITY – The season of Advent is a reminder to us to open our horizons and have concern for more than just material things, the Pope said Sunday during his Angelus address.

‘Light the advent candle one, now the waiting has begun.’

WASHINGTON - Although the four weeks of Advent focus on waiting for Christmas, the Church does not just sit around and wait for the main event. It celebrates plenty of major feasts with lots of customs, traditions and even special foods during the month of December.