Have you ever wondered what Christmas is like in the convent? Grab a cup of hot chocolate and I’ll give you a peek into the inner be-jingled sanctum! The Daughters of St. Paul were founded in Italy, so many of our congregational customs have an Italian flavour. Literally. Every Christmas Eve, we eat polenta and sausage (a Northern Italian dish), and, of course, we must sample every kind of panettone available (usually given to us as gifts). 

For the record, I’m Irish and French, but I never met a pasta shape I didn’t love. When I first entered the community and we had pasta three times a week? I knew I was home. A friend of mine who’s Italian entered an Irish convent—and, most unfortunately yet not unpredictably, she did not win the Lotto Max in the food department. 

As religious, our life is centered on the liturgy and prayer, of course, and so our annual sung Christmas Novena is much anticipated by all the veiled. The venerable novena from the 1700s is scriptural and incorporates the “O Antiphons” and Magnificat. In general, during the Advent-Christmas Season, we try to squeeze in and belt out as many hymns as we can: both the well-known and the obscure, with each nun relishing her favourites. 

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These favs include some originals written by the nuns, as well as some endearing Italian lullabies to the Infant King. On Christmas Eve, after “midnight Mass” (often a little earlier to accommodate our elderly Sisters), we form a procession around the convent to serenade Baby Jesus in his various crèches, set up in different rooms. 

Do nuns exchange presents? Since we have a vow of poverty and are basically personally broke, yes and no. We do a Secret Santa (which we call Kris Kringle) where we blindly pick out the name of a Sister whom we will pray for anonymously during Advent. Surreptitious “fervorinos” may be left in your prayer partner’s path. 

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During the Christmas Day Christmas party, we reveal our identity. There’s often a White Elephant gift exchange (under $10). Through Mother Superior, the community will provide each Sister something off the Sister’s wish list (usually something terribly practical), then add something fun, something holy and something comestible. The Christmas Day party also consists of games, dancing/singing, homemade cookies (good luck securing a time-slot to bake your specialty in the kitchen during holidays), and for those in training/formation (postulants and novices), perhaps a play or presentation. Christmas Night might feature a classic Christmas movie.

Speaking of convent food and traditions, one Sister makes the most killer, melt-in-your-mouth Christmas sugar cookies you’ve ever devoured, but not even the Grinch could wrest the recipe from her (however, we all know the secret is pure butter). Another Sister attempted Wassail punch. She poured the frighteningly hot juice into a large glass punch bowl and the whole thing shattered everywhere. The floor was fly paper sticky until Ash Wednesday. Another Sister celebrated her own Yuletide traditions in extremis. Every year she had to make paraffin wax Christmas candles. Once, she heated a vat of wax on the stove, removed the giant pot, inserted an electric power mixer into it, forgot to turn it off and lifted it out of the pot while it was still spinning at turbo speed. Yup. All. Over. The. Kitchen. 

This same nun meticulously sent out Christmas cards to everyone she had ever met in her entire life. She was terrified of missing someone. She even sent a card to the doctor who delivered her (not a family acquaintance or anything of the like). One year she discovered that not one, but two doctors had delivered her and was thrown into a tinsel tizzy for having “snubbed” him all these years! But this “nunny” was utterly forgivable because she made the meanest tourtièrewest of the Ottawa River.

Since the Daughters of St. Paul operate Catholic bookcentres the world over, an Advent-Christmas highlight for all of our centres is our Baby Jesus Birthday Party. This decades-old celebration is now GTA-famous. On a given Saturday, it’s a drop-in with birthday cake, kids’ games/prizes, a “real” Saint Nicholas, families dressing up as Nativity characters (with costumes worthy of the Ed Mirvish Theatre) for photos (many a live baby has graced the life-sized, hay-laden manger), face-painting, etc.

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Don’t have many Advent-Christmas traditions yourself? It’s never too late to start.

Sr. Helena Raphael Burns, fsp, is a Daughter of St. Paul. She holds a Masters in Media Literacy Education and studied screenwriting at UCLA. HellBurns.com  X/Twitter: @srhelenaburns  #medianuns MediaApostle.com  Instagram: @medianunscanada