Collect for Christmas Day in the Book of Common Prayer
The Collect for Christmas Day is the proper collect appointed for the feast of the Nativity in the Book of Common Prayer. In the classical prayer book tradition it gathers the doctrine of the incarnation into a concise petition: because God has given his only-begotten Son to take human nature, the Church asks to be made God's children by adoption and grace. The collect is an important example of how Anglican liturgy joins biblical theology, seasonal worship, and pastoral devotion in a single prayer.
Place in the Prayer Book
In the 1662 Book of Common Prayer, the collect is appointed for The Nativity of our Lord, or the Birthday of Christ, commonly called Christmas Day. It is used as the Collect of the Day at Morning Prayer, Evening Prayer, and the Communion service on Christmas Day. As with other principal feasts, the collect gives the day its doctrinal and devotional focus before the appointed Epistle and Gospel are read.
The collect also shapes the Christmas octave in many prayer book patterns. Its continued use in daily prayer and eucharistic worship after Christmas Day has helped Anglicans understand the Nativity not only as a commemoration of Christ's birth, but as a feast of the incarnation. In this respect, the collect works alongside the Christmas Gospel from Saint John and the seasonal psalms, lessons, hymns, and anthems of Anglican worship.
Text and Themes
The classical text begins by addressing God as the one who has given his only-begotten Son to take human nature upon him. The prayer then asks that those who have been born again and made God's children by adoption and grace may be renewed by the Holy Spirit. Its structure is typical of many prayer book collects: an address to God, a statement of divine action, a petition grounded in that action, and a conclusion through Jesus Christ.
The collect is densely theological. It confesses the true incarnation of the Son of God, not merely an appearance or moral example. The Son takes human nature, and this action becomes the basis for human renewal. The prayer therefore links Christmas to salvation, baptismal identity, and sanctification. The faithful do not simply admire the birth of Christ; they ask to share in the grace made known through it.
The language of adoption is especially significant in Anglican theology. It reflects the New Testament teaching that believers are received as children of God through Christ. The collect does not treat this status as a natural human possession, but as a gift of grace. At the same time, it prays for renewal by the Holy Spirit, showing that adoption and holiness belong together in the Christian life.
Liturgical and Devotional Use
In parish worship, the collect is often one of the most recognizable Christmas prayers in the prayer book tradition. Its brevity allows it to function both as a public liturgical prayer and as a private devotional text. Clergy and lay people have used it to frame Christmas sermons, family prayers, school chapel services, and seasonal offices.
The collect also illustrates the Anglican habit of teaching doctrine through repeated common prayer. Its words are not presented as an abstract theological treatise, but as the prayer of the assembled Church. By praying it year after year, congregations are formed to understand Christmas in relation to the incarnation, regeneration, adoption, and the work of the Holy Spirit.
Modern Anglican liturgies have often retained or adapted the collect. Contemporary-language versions may alter the wording, but the central movement of the prayer usually remains the same: God gives the Son to share human nature, and the Church asks to be renewed as God's adopted children. For this reason the collect remains a compact witness to the continuity between the classical Book of Common Prayer and later Anglican liturgical revision.
Related Prayer Book Context
The Christmas collect belongs to the wider system of proper collects, epistles, and gospels in the prayer book calendar. It stands near other seasonal collects that interpret the saving events of Christ's life, including Advent, Epiphany, Easter, Ascension, and Whitsunday. Together these prayers provide a theological outline of the Christian year.
Because of its focus on the incarnation, the collect is also connected with the Nicene Creed, especially the confession that the Son of God became incarnate for human salvation. In Anglican worship, creed, collect, Scripture, and sacrament reinforce one another. The Collect for Christmas Day is therefore not an isolated seasonal ornament, but a central prayer in the prayer book's annual proclamation of the gospel.