After the holiday, take time to relax before 2016 arrives
A new way to define the Christmas and New Year’s holidays might be to call them the Season of Lists.
The biggest list of all time is Santa’s list of who has been naughty and nice, followed closely by his list of what each child wants for Christmas. We don’t know how Santa would survive without his lists because, other than his major travels on Christmas Eve, those lists are the essence of our fantasy about him.
Santa’s lists are only the beginning, however. Children send Santa a list of what they want for Christmas and their parents are busy with all kinds of lists. There is the Who Gets What list, the Who Has the Best Prices list, the Christmas Card List, the Grocery List and the List of Activities, and those lists don’t even include the planning document, the menus, the preparations for guests, the holiday baking planning. Need we go on?
Now that Christmas is over, we can throw away a lot of these lists because we can assume that “Things to Do” have become “Things Done.” Of course, there are countless numbers of people who have new lists for Best Stores to Shop After Christmas, Where to Spend your Gift Cards, Thank You Notes and the de-constructing decorations schedule.
Seriously, we hope all those lists did what they were supposed to do and facilitated a wonderful holiday — without too much stress and too many catastrophes. Our lists — like Santa’s — are designed to keep us organized so that our last minutes before the holiday aren’t filled with a bunch of forgotten tasks.
If our lists served their purposes, they should also have kept us organized enough that we had time and energy for the important parts of the holiday. We sincerely hope that each of our readers enjoyed the holiday with family and friends, and that your days were filled with fun and laughter, and the joy of being surrounded by love. We hope that everyone celebrated spiritually, and remembered and rejoiced in the ultimate reason for the holiday.
The holidays are always better when we can reflect on the things we did to help others have a special holiday because — as most adults have discovered — giving really is more fulfilling than receiving. Looking back on the gifts we bought or the services we provided for those who are less fortunate brings a special kind of joy, as does the feeling we get when we see the joy in a loved one’s face when the “perfect” gift you searched for is opened. Christmas truly is a wonderful time of the year.
The week between Christmas and New Year is unique; it’s a quiet time, a time of reflection and rejuvenation. Most likely, our schedules are filled with family activities rather than meetings and deadlines. Many of us even have the opportunity to stay up late or sleep in. Children can just play — school and extra-curricular activities are probably on vacation, also. It’s also a great week for all of us to have fun, to laugh and to take a break before the real world steps in again.
Enjoy this week. Don’t set too many deadlines for yourself. Limit the lists or even eliminate them. Remember the lessons of Christmas: hope, love, joy and peace.
Happy New Year.