As many families decorate their Christmas trees and set up their Nativity scenes underneath, Father Roy Herberger will be unboxing nearly 600 different versions of Mary, Joseph and the Baby Jesus at his parish, SS. Columba & Brigid Church in Buffalo.

Father Bill Quinlivan, newly appointed Pastor of St. Martin of Tours and St. Thomas Aquinas parishes in South Buffalo, talks about his new book, Coming Home to Christmas Through Advent.

Our Lady of Fatima Shrine's 26th annual Festival of Lights opened on Nov. 26, with an eye towards celebrating the upcoming 100th anniversary of Our Lady's apparitions to the three shepherd children in Fatima, Portugal.

Advent is when we prepare our hearts and minds for the coming of the Lord on Christmas, and there are many things we can do. Even watching special programming can help put our minds and hearts in the right place. With that, I offer you this list of programming.

The Harmonia Chamber Singers will present their annual Christmas concert, featuring music from the Medieval period through the present, throughout the Diocese of Buffalo this Christmas season.

TONAWANDA — All are invited to attend two programs offered at St. Christopher Parish to bring people closer to the true meaning of the Advent and Christmas seasons.

The artist in Father Bill Quinlivan cannot be silenced, nor can his love of the Advent and Christmas season. The Singing Priest of South Buffalo has released a book for the season, called "Coming Home for Christmas Through Advent," which offers reflections on themes of the season that come from his two Christmas albums. Topics span the range of holiday ups and downs from gift-wrapping and cooking baking, to nativity sets and being alone.

VATICAN CITY (CNA/EWTN News) - While signs of bustling pilgrims who came for the Jubilee of Mercy are mostly gone, new signs of Christmas are springing up around St. Peter's Basilica, including the construction of the large Nativity scene in the middle of the square, and the placement of a Christmas tree alongside it.

Bishop Richard J. Malone has announced that during the Advent season (Nov. 27 - Dec. 24), parishes throughout the eight-county Diocese of Buffalo will have additional hours for confession.

St. Michael's Jesuit Parish in Buffalo will reach out to a growing downtown faith community during Advent with a series of liturgies and programs designed to prepare for the celebration of Christmas.

While repentance is a constant theme of the Christian life, the Catholic Church gives the faithful two extended seasons of the liturgical year for the specific purpose of examining our lives and changing our ways. Lent may be better known, but Advent is also a time for sacrifice and humility.

CINCINNATI — Topping this week's Billboard Classical Album chart is Dynamic Catholic's new Advent and Christmas CD, "O Emmanuel," which sold 2,600 copies in its first week.

Bishop Richard J. Malone talks about Thanksgiving and the beginning of Advent in "Consider This."

Christ the King Seminary will host its annual Advent vespers service on the second Sunday of Advent, Sunday, Dec. 4, at 4 p.m. in the seminary's St. John Vianney Chapel. All are welcome.

The Christmas tunes have yet to hit the radio, and the store shelves are still filled with Halloween candy, but plans are well underway to record a Christmas Mass in late October so the nation can watch it on TV during Christmas week.

Bishop Richard J. Malone offers a Christmas blessing of peace, justice and reconciliation in this week's "Consider This."

The 4th Sunday of Advent is a time to rejoice and to remember the reasons for joy in our lives, as Bishop Richard J. Malone explains in a new "Consider This."

NEW YORK - SiriusXM listeners will have access a special lineup of Christmas Eve and Christmas Day programming - featuring live broadcasts of masses and music - on The Catholic Channel (SiriusXM 129).

This Christmas season, the Ladies of Charity, a volunteer branch of Catholic Charities, is trying to ensure all children, regardless of their family's financial situation, will be able to have a merrier and warmer Christmas. The Ladies of Charity are participating in the Western New York Holiday Partnership, providing Christmas gifts and cold weather accessories for low-income children and teens.

The iGeneration, Y-Generation, Millennials, Mosaics - whatever the label, they may be the game-changer generation for our parishes.

TONAWANDA — Students at Cardinal O'Hara High School in Tonawanda take to heart, "What It Means to Be a Franciscan," a phrase generated by the school's Franciscan philosophy.

Being a part of a team at school often brings to mind sports teams, but Canisius High School Fine Arts Department Chair Kevin Durkin points out that the school's music programs could be considered teams as well.

"Jesus is the reason for the season." How many times have we heard this saying and and wondered where Jesus is among all the twinkling lights, merry tunes, and bustling shoppers rushing home with their treasures? Community and civic light displays are everywhere, but where is Jesus?

A unique adaptation of the classic holiday tale, "A Christmas Carol," will be presented live on stage at St. Mary School in Swormvillle on Dec. 14, at 7 p.m. Admission is free.

St. Joseph Cathedral, 50 Franklin St., Buffalo, has scheduled a number of celebrations during the Advent and Christmas seasons.

Chestnuts roasting on an open fire, Jack Frost nipping at the noses, and Father Bill Quinlivan singing about the birth of our Lord. The season has arrived.

This year, a new but popular tradition at Our Lady of Czestochowa Parish in North Tonawanda will begin another year of briging the community together to enjoy a local selection of traditional Christmas sweets.

The altar at Sacred Heart of Jesus Parish in Bowmansville received a dedication courtesy of Bishop Richard J. Malone, in which he spoke of the meaning of the altar in Catholic churches, the then-coming Christmas season and the ways in which both are important to Catholics. Bishop Malone gave the church's new wooden altar, adorned with a depiction of the Last Supper, a special blessing on Dec. 5.

Daybreak TV Productions, the television component of the Diocese of Buffalo's Office of Communications, has announced special programming that will air on WKBW-TV Channel 7 during the month of December.

ST. BONAVENTURE - The Western New York Chamber Orchestra, conducted by Glen Cortese, will perform the program "Baroque for the Holidays" at St. Bonaventure's Regina A. Quick Center for the Arts at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, Dec. 9. It is the fourth concert in the 2015-2016 Friends of Good Music concert series.

An annual Advent tradition and prayer service will again take place at Christ the King Seminary in East Aurora, and will be open to members of the community.