TheBanyanTree: Christmastide!

[Lalinda]

A very happy Christmas was had by all at our house. We had an early 
dinner, opened our presents (we have no young children here,) the 
start-up adults and the grandparents went home when the sun went down 
and here we were: content and yet looking forward to more of the season.

This morning's daily TV show advertised a segment about “post-Christmas 
letdown,” and I thought that might be interesting to see, curious as I 
am. Later, one of the hosts bemoaned the loss of Christmas. “It’s over,” 
she said, “just like that.”

I felt a pang of pity for her. Obviously, she doesn’t know! She doesn’t 
know that Christmas Day is only the very /first /day of Christmas, you 
know, like the one in the song? Yeah, and that means there are 11 more 
days to go! We are just getting started, people, so there is no reason 
to line up methods of suicide. By the time we get done with Christmas, 
we will all feel totally and completely satiated, filling to the brim 
with Christmas joy and celebration, overflowing onto all those around 
and passing on our joy.

Many people mistakenly assume, by virtue of commercial advertising (what 
other kind is there, you are probably wondering?) that the 12 days of 
Christmas begin before and then end on Christmas Day. Nope. There are 
different rumors and stories as to the secret meanings of the items of 
the 12 days of Christmas, but we’ll bypass the Da Vinci Code stuff and 
just say that the 12 days are celebrated up to, you must have heard at 
least of the Shakespeare version, /Twelfth Night, /which leads into 
“little Christmas” or as Catholics call it, the Feast of the Epiphany 
which is when the magi gifted Jesus, Mary and Joseph with gold, 
frankincense and myrrh. Some countries don’t even give their presents 
until Twelfth Night or thereabouts. Fortunately, for unbelievers, New 
Year’s Eve falls between the 1^st and 12^th days of Christmas, so there 
is some hope of more celebrating, but for the others, well, let’s just 
say the party is on.

It makes sense, though, doesn’t it? Think about it: the birth of a baby 
boy brings street clogged with traffic to a crawl, if not a complete and 
utter halt and causes normally lucid and reasonable people to scream at 
retail employees who never did promise to save them a Wii in the first 
place since there were only 13 coming in and a thousand people wanting 
them, so, how foolish would it be to make a promise like that, will you 
tell me? This has nothing to do with me and I disavow any connection to 
this incident. I heard about it from my daughter who happens to be 
employed by an opium den, I mean, a game store.

I’ve wondered what some people are thinking when they go shopping. Okay, 
maybe I live in an ivory tower and take extraordinary pains to behave 
myself Golden-rule style, but doesn’t it seem a bit odd that people 
scream at each other over Christmas shopping? Makes me sad and I wasn’t 
even there. Apparently one customer was so abusive that my daughter's 
coworker called after them as they exited the store, “Jesus and I love 
you, too!” I don’t think he is a Jesus freak due to other tales I have 
heard, but, regardless, this guy sees the irony. My daughter comes home 
from work every day with a new tale of terror by customer and her dismay 
at people’s lack of charity and so finally, I recalled that I had a 
couple of “Jesus is the reason for the season” pins hanging around. I 
gave them to her, including a sweet little brooch of tender baby Jesus 
in a manger as a subtle or not so reminder of why we are shelling our 
handfuls of sweaty, wadded up cash to keep our kids quiet and placated 
in front of TV screens across America and then some. Canada has 
electricity, right?

My daughter passed these out at work and her coworker, the one who is 
not a Jesus freak, said, “Your mom is AWESOME! YEAH! “ and as he 
finished pinning himself, looked down at it and said, “Yeah. [Bleeping] 
reason for the season, people!” Okay. Maybe not the best response, but 
he gets an A for enthusiasm, I say. Next year, I’ll get them stickers to 
hand out to the frazzled, harried moms with cellphones between their 
ears and shoulders. To each his own addiction, right?

So, anyway, this was supposed to be about how Christmas is just 
beginning and officially, at least before the 2^nd Vatican Council, 
decorations were left up until February 2^nd , which some people call 
Candlemas. In earlier times, people believed that when your decorations 
came down it affected your luck, so, I have taken the cautious approach 
and leave them up all through January to assist in my denial that there 
even is a January. Generally, they are down before Valentines Day (if my 
husband can endure the humiliation,) because after Valentine’s Day, the 
St. Patrick’s Day stuff goes up in the stores and the day itself 
arrives, corned beef and all where we reminisce about our grandmother's 
annual St. Patrick's Day shindig. St. Patrick's day is promptly followed 
by the arrival of crocuses. After crocuses come, daffodils are not far 
behind, even if it does snow until Mothers Day and before you know it, 
we are in sandals and shorts at the seashore in Maine putting on 
sunscreen to keep our skin as white as it is all winter. This is my 
method of coping. I’ve already begun browsing for sandals, online. Hey, 
I’m home alone and supposed to be brainstorming other vacation options. 
What’s more important than where my sandals are coming from? Not much.

Happy Christmassing and don’t give up so easily. Remember: he who takes 
down his Christmas decorations too early could incur the wrath of the … 
the…. whatever is that controls those kinds of things. Also, one must 
Christmas as a statement of individuality since the Puritans discouraged 
the celebration of Christmas (a definite sign of popery, they thought; 
you should remember this in case it matters to you) and would stalk 
around Boston, peering in windows and knocking on the doors of people 
who didn’t show up to work and were suspected of enjoying themselves, 
whereupon they were incarcerated or locked in the stocks as punishment, 
so you’d have better really want to celebrate Christmas and risk being 
accused of consorting with the pope or at least with some of his 
favorite holidays before you make such a brazen social statement. It’s 
risky, celebrating Christmas at all, let alone being bold enough to 
proclaim the extending of Christmas, which seems much more humane to me 
than the alternative where the clock strikes midnight and whomever gets 
their tree down and out to the curb first is most efficient.

Sounds kind of like a Puritan thing.