Christmas decorations warm a cold January

My Christmas decorations are still up.

Not the outdoor ones of course. My friend Deb’s mom contends that anyone who still has their lights up after New Year’s Day must be alcoholics.

But the decorations inside, where my neighbors can’t see them (and judge me), are still up.

It’s no big deal, I think, sipping a glass of New Zealand sauvignon blanc.

My tree, tucked in the corner of the den, is artificial; it’s not like it can go up in flames. The dog naps with the stuffed Santa perched on the throw pillows on the couch. (It’s kind of adorable.)

A lot of people are climbing ladders and hanging lights the day after Thanksgiving and New Year’s Day gives them a day off and time to take them down.

Lore supposes if you keep your Christmas tree up after Dec. 31, it will drag your bad luck from one year into the next. Christian tradition calls for leaving it up until the eve of the Epiphany, 12 days after Christmas.

I claim I haven’t had the time to do it, but the truth is, I’m reluctant to take it all down. The house seems oddly empty when I do.

January is a cold, dreary month. It gets dark early and is still dark when my alarm goes off in the morning.

The warm glow of lights helps ward off the gloom.

It’s not like I’m the only one. At least one house on every street in my neighborhood still is aglow at night. I bet their trees are up still, too.

But then I saw my friend Mark glance sideways at the tree.

“What?” I demanded. “Are your decorations down?”

He chortled. “We didn’t put any up.” I’ll get around to it, maybe this weekend. But maybe I’ll leave up one string of lights to keep the feeling. It’ll be November before you know it.