Christians, or at least the Catholic ones, are supposed to do something through Advent -- the season that immediately precedes Christmas. Prepare, in some way.
The "Christmas season" comes in with the Midnight Mass, announcing the birth of Jesus, whom we take to be the Messiah; in Bethlehem, of all places. That would be the signal for feasting. There are, traditionally, 12 days of Christmas, ending in Twelfth Night through which we transit into the "season of the Epiphany." That is plenty of time to party, and happily it corresponds, for some mysterious reason, with the secular "winter holidays."
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