The case for moving Christmas

True believers may want to move on at this point, as you'll likely consider what I have to say to be blasphemy.

But I think we should move Christmas.  Just by a few weeks, say to mid-to-late January.  I say this as I gaze upon my lit tree, 4 days after Christmas, holiday music still playing in the background.

One of my favorite times of year is the Thanksgiving/Christmas (Solstice and/or Kwanzaa, if that's your thing)/New Year's trifecta.  It encompasses that harvest-y, late-fall and then early winter time of year where the weather hasn't gotten completely terrible just yet, and where a snowfall is greeted as contributing to the holiday spirit.  At this point, the snow festive and had not reached the state of drudgery that appears later in the season.  Pumpkin everything moves over to peppermint everything.  Decorations and lights abound.

Then, nothing.  It's over.  Nothing but months of winter bleakness with little to break it up.  Sure, there's President's Day and Valentine's Day, both barely blips on the radar.  For those of us who don't get President's Day or MLK day off, you're staring at 5 full months with no holiday break.

By moving Christmas a few weeks, we get some extra time to savor that holiday goodness.  Sure, I know this is a pipe dream that'll never happen, but I have to think that I'm not the only one who feels this way.  Despite my best attempts to maintain normalcy and not get sucked into the great holiday vortex (and believe you me, my holidays are about as low-key as you can get), the post-holiday letdown socks me in the gut every year and I find myself trying to figure out how to 1. prevent it or 2. prolong that lovely, cozy feeling, if even for only a few weeks.

So, with that, I'm off to take my idea to a wider audience.  Just kidding.  I shall savor the tree, the music, the food and the feeling for a few more precious days and try to avoid becoming the old lady with the dead tree in the middle of her living room in June.

It's the time of the season...for introverts

Or the clinically depressed.  Or both.

That said, this is almost my favorite time of the year, behind the glorious days of autumn.  Maybe it's no coincidence that I revel in the days getting shorter.  While most others lament losing daylight, I start feeling giddy, knowing casserole season is on the way.  Pumpkin beer.  I can cook to my heart's content without heating up the house.  Flannel sheets on the bed.  It's acceptable to start getting ready for bed at 8:30 since it's been dark for 3+ hours.  A quiet winter's night after a snowfall when the world feels at peace.  You get the idea.

There are downsides, for sure.  My riding drops precipitously, not that it can drop all that much more before it's at zero.  But when I am out, there's hardly anyone else out, which I enjoy.

Now that the solstice has passed, the days will start getting longer again.  Oh sure, we'll still be stuck in the throes of winter for several more months, but the longer days surely mean that Spring is just around the corner.  I will greet it warily and then wait patiently for the summer solstice and begin the countdown to darkness.