Twelve days of Christmas …

… imagine the twelve days unfolding in days of feasting and fasting, with short daily readings and prayers to be shared around a meal; or, instead of a meal:
1. Feast of Christ the King (Christmas Day)—celebrating God’s kingdom as a new way of life characterized by good will (benevolence) toward all people.
2. Feast of the Shepherds—celebrating in some creative, communal way God’s special solidarity with the poor.
3. Fast of the Holy Innocents—acknowledging the evil of abusive human power that causes children to suffer, and celebrating God’s love for children in need around the world.
4. Feast of the Geneologies—celebrating God’s work through history, and in each of our own families, bringing us from violence to peace.
5. Feast of the Magi—celebrating God’s revelation of messianic compassion in all cultures and among all religions.
6. Feast of John the Baptist—celebrating John’s identity as Jesus’ forerunner, working on the margins of society, calling all to radical repentance.
7. Feast of the New Year—celebrating all things made new in Christ: New Testament, New Commandment, New Identity.
8. Feast of the Circumcision—celebrating Jesus’ identity within the Jewish people, together with his love for all people, reflected in the words of Simeon and Anna (Luke 2:25ff).
9. Fast of the Flight to Egypt—recalling the holy family’s experience as refugees by fasting for one meal, and then celebrating God’s concern for refugees by eating a simple meal of similar caloric intake as the world’s poorest share.
10. Feast of Jesus’ Childhood—celebrating Jesus’ experience in his Father’s House as a boy, and his later proclamation that God’s House will outlast the Temple and is meant as a place of welcome for all people.
11. Feast of Jesus’ Baptism—celebrating the Spirit descending as a dove upon Jesus, and baptism as turning from old identities of hostility to a new identity as God’s agents of peace.
12. Feast of the Epiphany—celebrating God’s manifestation in Jesus, in his proclamation of Good News for the poor and outsiders in Luke 4:14–30.

From Why Did Jesus, Moses, the Buddha, and Mohammed Cross the Road