First Sunday of Christmas

The Common Worship lectionary readings for First Sunday of Christmas in Year A, the liturgical colour, and what changes in the order of service.

Year A · Christmas · white

Year AChristmaswhite

The readings

Citations follow the Revised Common Lectionary as used in the Church of England's Common Worship principal service lectionary. Verse numbering can differ very slightly between Bible translations.

The liturgical colour

White is festal — Christmas, Easter, and the feasts of the Lord. Many parishes use gold on the greatest of them. On this Sunday the colour is white.

What changes in the service

The full festal shape: Gloria, Creed, and the seasonal acclamations.

In SundayHQ this is the festal template shape. You set your order of service once; when the season turns, one click applies the seasonal change and leaves the rest of your parish's own wording alone.

Hymns that fit these readings

Suggestions matched to the readings above, each with the reason it was chosen:

• Opening — O come, all ye faithful The processional the season exists for
• Gradual — Unto us a boy is born The flight into Egypt; the boy born into danger
• Offertory — In the bleak midwinter 'What can I give him?' — the offertory question itself
• Communion — O little town of Bethlehem Quiet nativity at the table
• Final — Hark! the herald angels sing The one they came to sing

When it next falls

Year A comes round every three years. The date moves because the whole calendar hangs off Easter.

The same Sunday in the other years

Questions