Usually I find it repulsive when one holiday gets pushed ahead of the one just prior to it; i.e. Thanksgiving before halloween, Christmas before Thanksgiving. The one exception is New Year’s Eve. It seems to be the ugly twin sister to Christmas, making its way onto holiday cards and into celebration central. Several magazines are sporting headlines that tout the two as interchangeable. In fact, it is hard to even give the greeting of ‘merry Christmas’ without tacking on ‘and a happy new year’. Guess we’ll have to blame Charles Dickens. But I find that I kind of like the two things together. I grew up where January 6 was observed as the original Christmas, or Epiphany. It is the Christmas of the old country. (My southern ancestors said a lot of things that I kind of miss and wish I had paid more attention to. This is one of those things!) But the resolution making seems to go hand in glove with the whole Christmas excess; like Mardi Gras before Lent, the great feast before we fast. Nobody would stop drinking, smoking, eating carbs, etc. before Christmas! We know we are having wine at our friends’ homes, spiked cider at the outdoor lighting ceremony, and eggnog at Aunt Louise’s. We are going to eat the pecan pie because Mother made it specially for us and if we don’t enjoy it then perhaps the cats will. No guilt there. The smokers are going to congregate in huddled masses drawing the heated tar and nicotine sticks as far into their overspent lungs as possible. We do not want any smokers to stop smoking right before Christmas. No, seriously, save the insane tirades for your immediate family members who can’t escape you in January. Please do not torture us with a pre-holiday attempt at appeasing the Christmas presents angels no matter how hard your wife begs. We would much rather our gift boxes reek of stale smoke than have our children trembling in the corner.
Does this sound bitter? Sorry.
Back to chestnuts roasting on an open fire; oops, there goes the smoke thing again! Seriously, I like planning ahead for my resolutions. They are like the weekends before the diets you plan to start on Monday. Many a cheesecake have been lost to the Monday diet craze. But planning ahead for resolutions makes the enjoyment of the Christmas excesses sweeter and gives us a clue to what we might hint at wanting for Christmas. Since I want more writing time and a better computer, I know what to ask Santa for. Perhaps he can fill my stocking with ink pens and little note pads. If I’ve been really good, I might even get a high speed internet service. So, I think I’ll leave my Christmas tree up til January 6 as a nod to the ancestors. My superstitious grandmothers would approve!
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