Sunday within the Octave of the Nativity of the LORD

Sunday within the Octave of the Nativity is of semi-double rite and its liturgical colour is white. It is also the Sunday within the Octaves of St. Stephen, St. John and of the Holy Innocents but since the reform of 1911-13 those Octaves are all but invisible.

At Vespers yesterday afternoon the antiphons and psalms of the Nativity were sung, the antiphons were not doubled. The Office hymn was Jesu, Redemptor omnium. After the collect of the Sunday commemorations were sung of the Octave of the Nativity and of St. Sylvester. The Suffrage was omitted. At Compline the Dominical preces were omitted. Throughout the Octave hymns of Iambic metre are sung with the Doxology and melody of the Incarnation, Jesu, tibi...Qui natus etc.

At Mattins the invitatory and hymn, antiphons (not doubled) and psalms are those that were sung on the feast of the Nativity. In the first nocturn the lessons are from the Epistle to the Romans. In the second nocturn the lessons are from St. Leo on the Nativity. In the third nocturn the homily is taken from St. Ambrose on the second chapter of St. Luke's Gospel. The Te Deum is sung. At Lauds the antiphons from the Nativity, Quem vidistis etc., are sung (not doubled) with psalms 92, 99, 62, Benedicite and 148. The chapter and antiphon on the Benedictus are proper to the Sunday as is the collect. The Office hymn is A solis ortus cardine. After the collect of the Sunday commemorations are sung of St. Sylvester and of the Octave of the Nativity.

At the Hours the antiphons from Lauds are sung with the festal psalms. The hymns of the Hours are sung with the Doxology of the Incarnation. At Prime (Pss. 53, 118i, & 118ii) the Dominical preces are omitted and the lectio brevis is proper to the Sunday, Itaque jam non est servus.

Mass is sung after Terce. The Mass formulary is Dum medium etc. The Gloria is sung, the second collect is of St. Sylvester, the thrid collect is of the Octave of the Nativity. The Creed is sung and the preface and communicantes are of the Nativity.

After None first Vespers of the feast of the Circumcision are sung. The, proper, antiphons O admirabile commercium etc are sung, doubled, with the psalms for feasts of the BVM (Pss.109, 112, 121, 126 & 147). The Office hymn is Jesu, Redemptor omnium (as on the feast of the Nativity). The Doxology, which has been sung since first Vespers of the Nativity ,Jesu, tibi sit gloria etc continues to be sung until the Epiphany.
There are no commemorations. The Suffrage is omitted. At Compline the Dominical preces are omitted.

In the 'liturgical books of 1962' there are no commemorations - including the Octave of the Nativity - at either Vespers. Mattins has the psalmody of the Nativity (with the curtailed Ps. 88 ) and the usual cut-down single nocturn of three lessons. There are no commemorations at Lauds. At the Hours the antiphons and psalmody are from the Sunday Office, not of the Nativity. There is no proper Doxology at the hymns of the Hours. Mass has but a single collect. 

Being the only Sunday within an Octave possible within MR1962 it is bizarre that the Octave is not commemorated at all whilst only half a century earlier the Octaves of the Nativity, of St. Stephen, of St. John and of the Holy Innocents (and in English dioceses that of St. Thomas) would have been commemorated on this day. (The feast of St. Sylvester would have been observed with commemorations of the Sunday and 4, or 5, Octaves.)