[The ceramic Christmas scene above is to be found in the chapel of the Pontifical Bibilical Institute in Rome... at least when I was last there...]
I know a gentleman who has campaigned against advent “Christmas” parties for decades. Finally, as the new corrected translation is coming in so as to help create some Catholic identity, the parish priest listened to his pleas, and insisted against all odds, against all the power groups in the parish, against threats of “We won’t put any money in the collection!”, that there will be no Christmas parties in the parish hall during Advent. Not even one. Not for the parish staff, not for the little kids, not for the K of C, not for the Altar Society, not for the rich pillars of the parish. None. This was an extremely unpopular politically incorrect decision that promises, however, to bear great results in an increase in Catholic identity. It was finally noticed that people are apologetic, ashamed almost, to prepare for and celebrate Christmas as if it was all about rejoicing with the angelic choirs over the humble Incarnation of our Lord. But when people start to grab on to their true Catholic identity, they will be on fire to bring people in humble thanksgiving before our Lord in the manger, especially from Christmas to Epiphany, the 12th day of Christmas. How about you? Are you afraid of your Catholic identity? Are you enthused to do something about it? The new Evangelization has to do with first of all regaining our Catholic identity, which has first of all to do with falling in love with our Catholic liturgical cycle. Here’s a poll:
UPDATE: As you can see from the results (at least as of this writing), that the overwhelming majority hold that respecting the liturgical cycle provides our Catholic identity, and that this would involve avoiding specifically Christmas parties during advent. O.K. Maybe that reflects the readership of the blog. Maybe there is a shift to the better in the understanding of our Catholic identity. Maybe some are coming to understand more intensely the overwhelming weight of the glory that was coming upon Israel back in the day, when it was — for the faithful — the Suffering Servant who was to come into the world as the Messiah and Redeemer, who would be born to die, who would surely be hunted from His birth to His death. And He was, so that all the boys two years and under died in Bethlehem in an effort to kill Him. He had to go into exile for all of His early childhood. The weight of the glory of His love for us!
In Hebrew, “weight” and “glory” are the same word, for, by wonderful insight, the Jews understood that the glory of God among men is a crushing weight, so wonderful is it, grinding those who are willing, to be the wheat of the Lord, the bread of encouragement for others, but smashing down those who would otherwise try to hold themselves aloof. The weight of the glory, shoving us to our knees. I think our guardian angels help us with this mightily.
If one follows the readings of either lectionary — ordinary or extraordinary — one discovers that Advent is about learning to appreciate the weight of the glory of the Lord about to appear among us, the Word being made flesh. Advent prepares us for the celebration of the Lord’s goodness and kindness in a unique way, providing us with our Catholic identity.
Accompany me, Father George David Byers, S.S.L., S.T.D., as I begin life as a Catholic Priest-Hermit by choice. Holy Souls Hermitage is dedicated to the sanctification of my fellow priests, bishops, deacons & seminarians going through the purgatory of this life or the next. Prayer and sacrifice go up, of course, for both Benedict XVI and the next Successor of Saint Peter. 
I would go further: no Christmas carols before Midnight Mass. There are plenty of excellent Advent carols. There are 12 days to celebrate Christmas; why should anybody conceivably want another 24? Pure greed!
I know we should wait and all, but Christ was born 2000 years ago, not 4 weeks from now. Celebrate it everyday. [In fact, we embrace our risen Lord, who, by the way, still bears the wounds of slaughter upon Him. And, He was born to die. We're not spirits without bodies. We need liturgical cycles to help us understand our Catholic identity. This is why we fast and abstain on Good Friday. There are appropriate times for diverse things.]
I am a fairly traditional person and liturgically astute Catholic, but enough of the liturgical police already! As far as Mass goes, yes, we should use music that is appropriate for the season, so use Advent Carols [or Introits...] and save the Christmas ones until Christmas, but as far as personal or parish Christmas parties, I think that the priest banning them in the parish is too legalistic. [Like a priest's lack of appreciation for Mardigras on Friday in Lent?] Give me a break, it is NOT a sin [Your comment!] to have a personal Christmas party or attend one during Advent, and I don’t think it diminishes our Catholic identity one bit. We’re not that stupid. We certainly know when Christmas is. [And, therefore... Why does it have to be specifically a "Christmas party" unless this is "cultural Catholicism" cut off from the culture from which it came?] That being said, I think it is also appropriate to start recognizing the 12 Days of Christmas and Epiphany as well. I’m really sick and tired of the “I’m oh so better than you crowd” [Precisely the reason to do things not according to the whim of whomever, but to look to our Lord Jesus. That cuts down on the tyranny of relativism, the "I'm oh so better than you crowd" you speak about...] because I won’t allow a Christmas tree or Christmas decorations in my house until Christmas Eve and don’t take them down until Michaelmass. Personally, I put up Christmas decorations on the first Sunday of Advent, and apart from what the liturgical police want to tell me, I find it actually aids in my focus on waiting for Christ. Personally, I think there are many more issues affecting our Catholic identity than whether or not we attend a Christmas party during Advent. How about restoring Eucharistic Adoration and Processions, novenas, rosaries, Divine Mercy Chaplet, Indulgences, Sacred Heart Devotions Holy Days of Obligation and just plain knowing doctrine and morals. We want to fight over petty things like a parish staff Christmas party during Advent when many Catholics don’t have a clue about major issues regarding their faith. [Catholic identity comes from our Lord, who comes to us in the liturgy. This is not adverse to Eucharistic adoration and so on.] A priest making a huge issue over this in his parish is just wasting his pastoral “ammunition”, if you will on something that is just not that important and then probably not gaining on audience on issues that are more important because he lost the respect of his people over celebrating a Chritmas Party in Advent. [Not to worry. He got the camel as well!] All I can say to those who want to insist that nobody even dare attend a party in Advent is, “Please, don’t we have more important battles as Catholics facing us than this one?” ["Christmas party". And yes, let's encourage people to stop murdering their kids in the womb, treating their spouses like a piece of meat with contraception, abusing vulnerable children and adults, and so on. Right with you on that! But one can also point to Jesus, for it's about Jesus, not our party. But I think that is precisely the point which makes some people so nervous. This is about liturgical police or whatever, it's about pointing to the goodness and kindness of our Lord, before the weight of whose coming glory we enter into the time of Advent with dread anticipation, so to speak, of that goodness and kindness, which we know will rock the world, casting down the mighty and lifting up the lowly. When that spirit is lived by the whole parish, the results of enthusiasm for our Lord Jesus are amazing to behold.]
There should be a third option. “Yes, this is a good time to foster fellowship outside Mass.”
I think it’s too extreme to say that any kind of party during Advent is bad [Christmas parties...] or that this is absolutely the only possible way to bring everyone together. [Because it's not!]
I have been pondering this for a few days and am confused. I am a convert of 6 years and grew up Reformed Christian. We celebrated Advent as a time of preparing for Christmas. We decorated our houses, sang Christmas carols, baked treats(but didn’t eat them)[There's the spirit!] and lit candles in our Advent wreaths. For the 12 days of Christmas we left up our decorations, had unlimited desserts and drank fruit juice(my family was rather puritan, we drank fruit juice twice a year, Christmas and Easter). [This all sounds wonderful, though I wonder if the Christmas carols were advent hymns?] As a Catholic, we do pretty much the same except for not singing carols in church until actual Christmas. Personally, I think Bing Crosby’s I’m dreaming of a white Christmas is appropriate all year. [Must be the mellow voice! I think you're betraying your age here too!] Our parish doesn’t have a party but does do a concert with scripture readings and food afterwards about 10 days before Christmas. [That sounds very interesting. There could be some awesome preparatory readings from Isaiah, for instance. I think Linus of Peanuts fame was given to citing Isaiah! I've sometimes written plays to be put on by various parishes, and think that an Advent play would help to understand our Catholic Identity. That could have a companion play, a second part, if you will, perhaps on Ephipany. This kind of participation helps everyone to live our faith deeply, in tune with the liturgical cycle. Very wonderful, that.] What exactly is “our Catholic Identity”, no one mentioned that to me before. [Fr Z over at http://wdtprs.com/blog/ writes about this pretty continuously, and Pope Benedict also speaks of this often: http://www.vatican.va/phome_en.htm ] Is it our Catholic American culture? [That would be great if it was. I'm afraid that not everyone who claims to be Catholic in America is a great exemplar of what it means to be one of the Lord's little flock on this earth.] Is it like being Amish where we are trying to set ourselves apart as different and better? [I would NOT want to say that about the Amish at all. Yikes! Part of Catholic identity is know that we are just such sinners if we are without our Lord's grace, which we can so easily reject anyway.] Is it something doctrinal? [Our Lord Himself is Truth. Doctrine needs to be lived in humble reverence before Him. This is about rejoicing in our Lord! This is about looking to Him, not to culture cut off from the "cult" (in the sense of truly religious liturgy).] The only Christmas parties I have ever been to are secular [Interesting!] , really the reformed Christians I grew up with were a little suspicious of too much fun. [Part of the Catholic identity is to know how to party well. Fasting is for fast days. Feasting is for feast days. Catholics who live their Catholic identity, rejoicing to appropriately fast and feast, have a great time of things, because they are centered on our Lord, not themselves, or merely what is politically correct or simply the done thing so that's what we do mindlessly, having fun, I'm sure, but not really helping people to rejoice most profoundly in our Lord.] Our parish usually has a fiesta to celebrate our lady of Guadalupe, which falls during advent, are you saying this is wrong? [On the contrary. Our Lady of Guadalupe is a great feast! As it the Immaculate Conception on 8 December. What I'm talking about is actually celebrating Christmas with a Christmas party when it is not yet Christmas.] Our parish also has a New Year’s Eve gathering with midnight mass, is this a problem? [Couldn't imagine why. January 1 is also the octave of Christmas, a huge feast. It is also the Feast of Mary, Mother of God in the Ordinary Form of the Mass.] Could you clarify the issue for the converted but uninformed? [Actually, I think you're doing much better than you think!]
I totally agree with you, Father and I feel so alone in this sometimes. It’s a big fight. The only party I wish was during Advent was my husband’s company Christmas party. It’s something I have to “offer up” so I’d rather have it during Advent. Ha ha. Actually, they moved it because December is so busy not because of anything Catholic.
In our home we *try* to have some penances during Advent and then really celebrate the whole Christmas season big. We just put up our tree yesterday and it’s not decorated yet. Years ago we met friends who taught us how to wait, and I’m telling you they really ENJOY Christmas.
We will have a big Church Christmas party on Jan. 01 this year. My Guatemalan friend said they used to get a new outfit on Christmas Eve to wear to mass and then a small gift or two on Epiphany. We have thought about exchanging gifts on Epiphany. Think about it: everything is on sale after Christmas and there would be less stress involved.
I cannot WAIT for the carols at midnight mass! Woohoo!
By the way, we do the no carols too, but it’s impossible when kids are practicing them on the piano in preparation. I find myself humming them all day long!