The Magical Week Between Christmas and New Year's

It's like a prison furlough for kids.

Back when I was a young lad, I generally found school to be unpleasant.  I had neither the good fortune of popularity with my peers, nor given my tendency to daydream, doodle, and forget my homework, the affection of my teachers.  As such, the week between Christmas and New Years Day was a particularly magical one, free of the drudgery of school.

In Rhode Island, where I grew up, we got only a week off for Christmas (my son enjoyed the far more generous two weeks both Texas and Florida grant kids).  As I remember, we’d get a half-day for Christmas Eve (which fell on a Sunday this year anyway) then be right back to it in the mines on January 2.  But that week in between was glorious.

Christmas itself was always amazing, of course.  Presents, time with family, presents, good food, presents, watching cartoon specials, and presents.  But that week after was a relaxing time when we could play with our new toys¹, show them off to friends, sleep in, etc. If we were particularly lucky, there might even be snow on the ground² and we could take our sleds onto hilly roads, hoping we didn’t go careening into traffic³.

This was an enchanted time, freed of all responsibility as well as our torturers at school.  Heaven, I imagine, must be rather like these days.  As adults, it can be easy to forget them, either shuffled back to work on December 26, or for lazy academics like me, finding ourselves with a break stretched out over a month, albeit one we tend to spend plucking away at our research⁴.

My wife, Diana, and I figured out how to stretch the week a bit to January 6…Three King’s Day.  Technically, this is the “12 Days of Christmas”, though this mode of celebrating the holiday has dropped off last century or so, aside from the song.  Capped off with a final dinner and single present (not typically a bird or drummers, contrary to the song), it helps gradually relieve the withdrawal from Christmas for sad saps like me.    

Alas, Christmas week was always over too soon.  New Year’s Eve heralded the termination of this grace time, and on January 2, we were all shuffled back to school in the ice and darkness, our brief respite at an end.  The New Year offered only a long stretch of B-holidays until Easter finally rolled around.  That 3^rd “quarter” was always the most grueling, with dark mornings, recess canceled by freezing rains⁵, Christmas receding and summer still a distant hope.

So, wherever we may be today…whether returning to work, or still waiting for the Spring semester (or even any kids reading this who are on their Christmas break⁶), let’s all raise a glass for Christmas week!  Every month should have one.

1. Or, once the Atari 2600 rolled around, spend absurd hours on that. Still look back on that as time well spent.

2. Which, as I recall, was seldom actually the case, God not really loving Rhode Island.

3. Young boys are not too bright.

4. My wife now scolds me to play MORE video games on my breaks.

5. Inside recess is a cruelty only the naughty kids should have to endure.

6. Though, then again, why aren’t you playing video games?