On the second day of Christmas

So here we are. The day after Christmas. The commercial world has decided the holiday is over. All the Christmas decorations we saw at Halloween are 50% off. The music stops playing on the radio. In the 21st century secular interpretation, Christmas gets boxed up and stored away until… next October.

Something still embedded in my psyche from Catholic dogma training is that Christmas is actually just the start of the holiday celebrations. The kickoff. You know that song the twelve days of Christmas? Yeah… that puts us at, um, day TWO. Not finis. It culminates on Twelfth Night or, as we celebrate it, Epiphany.

My mother has been hosting an Epiphany party since I was three. So that’s pretty much all of my cognitive history. Except for one heartbreaking snow/ice storm, I don’t know a Christmas season that did not end with our party of my mother’s finest culinary achievements – mushroom turnovers, Swedish meatballs, glug, and her amazing assortment of cookies all spread in a giant basket that serves no other purpose.

Aside from the food, Epiphany was the party where we saw friends – not just the family with whom I spent Christmas. But they were there, too. As a kid, it was another opportunity to play with the peers whom I only saw on school vacations and holidays. As an adult, it’s become a time to see the ‘grownups’ who have known me since I was three and catch up on the details of our lives. A very special day.

There’s still another ten days before we get there. This year that ten days is chock full of social activity. Lunches and dinners with friends from out of town. Christmas gatherings that couldn’t be arranged until post holiday, New Year’s parties, and then ultimately, Epiphany. So… I’m not done with Christmas yet folks. The tree has to stay up for another week at least.

I wonder if the rush to clear away the tinsel has always been there and my family tradition and nostalgia has tinted the glasses with which I view the days after the holiday. Or have we become that much more driven by retail that suddenly Boxing Day means we start pulling out the decorations for Valentine’s Day? What makes us want to package up the Christmas spirit and store it away so abruptly? Why don’t we wish to savor it and let the aftertaste linger?

I know not everyone has the tradition of Epiphany parties. But… I don’t know. It seems to belittle all that Christmas spirit that everyone talks about if we can so easily disconnect and put it away. I know if it did go on all year, there would be nothing special about it. It would get even more exploited and abused by commercialism. BUT… I guess I’m just saying I would rather hear a few Christmas carols on the radio now than on November 12th. It just seems so much more… gratifying to know something lingers than is shoved in my face prematurely.