The Octave of Christmas is the eight days beginning with Christmas Day and ending on New Year’s Day, January 1. Feast days and solemnities mark the period: the Nativity, December 25; St. Stephen, the first Christian martyr on December 26; St. John the Evangelist, apostle, author of the fourth Gospel, three letters, and the Book of Revelation, December 27; the Holy Innocents, December 28, the male child victims slaughtered by King Herod; the Holy Family, Sunday, December 29; St. Sylvester, December 31, and Mary, Mother of God, January 1. We recite the Gloria each day of the Octave. We then continue the Christmas season through Epiphany, January 5, and officially end with the Baptism of the Lord, January 12.