The Christmas Cooldown

This was a blog I originally wrote in 2006 and I figured I'd repost it here.

As I have previously mentioned, I love Christmas. The problem, I've discovered, is that I get this amazing Christmas build-up and then I'm supposed to just move on as if nothing ever happened. So I propose that we have the Christmas cool-down - a period of time (the week between Christmas and New Year's) where the Christmas obsessed can slowly purge the Christmas celebration out of their system instead of quitting cold turkey

First step is the radio music. Koast and the Fish have played non-stop Christmas music for one month and then, on December 26th it's back to the same old thing. Maybe we can compromise. For cooldown week perhaps they can play a series of 'winter' songs and New Year's songs. Here is a possible play-list: Baby It's Cold Outside, Winter Wonderland, Let it Snow, What are you doing New Year's, Auld Lang Sayne. For starters. This slow dissipation will take the edge off.

Next, we have the Christmas specials on TV. I love Christmas movies, do they have to end? The answer is simply, NO! There are plenty of movies in which the story takes place over the ENTIRE holiday season. These can be shown during cooldown as well. Here are some examples: Boyfriend for Christmas (my new favorite), When Harry Met Sally, Holiday Inn, that great one I saw on Lifetime about the homeless divorcee who gets her real estate liscence (I'm not kidding, I watched it yesterday and delighted in every delicious minute of it), and I can't think of any more, but they do exist.

Now about decorations. I feel that Christmas decorations can be left up during Cooldown. It's just one week more and I spent all that time putting them up. Maybe I can just put away one decoration a day and then it won't be such a shock.

Spreading Holiday cheer. This is the worst, because people seem to lose that 'true holday spirit' by the 27th. I am not going to let this one go. I'm going to wish people a happy new year and then a happy winter and then a happy Martin Luther King Jr. day, and then a happy President's day and I'll keep finding some holiday to wish people joy. [side note: I was shopping on Dec 23rd and I was so happy because it was almost Christmas, I was done with school, and I was almost done shopping. I was smiling so big and nearly skipping on my way to Barnes and Noble (or 'home', as I like to call it). I was deliciously happy. The best part was people would stare at me and then smile back. One group of people stopped their conversations and said, "Merry Christmas!" "Merry Christmas!" I shouted back and then I really did skip. I love that kind of community joy]

So please support me in my effort to relieve my post-Christmas blues by celebrating the Christmas Cooldown. I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and a wonderful New Year. And for those who celebrate various other holidays (Channukah, Kwanza, Festivus, etc) I hope that you enjoyed those as well.