Christmas Routines

Here we are. The day after Christmas.

And still, another Monday. Another start to the week.

Mondays are when I schedule every post to deliver because they are the most mundane of the calendar week. It is the day that resets the routine. That is especially true on a day after Christmas. That is quite a reset. Christmas works so well because it is the antithesis of routine. What other calendar day are school children awake before their parents?

When Monday comes we have nothing but a sugar hangover, clean up to do, and exhausted kids.

The magic of the holidays has been winning me over as the years pass. This Christmas was a bizarre mix of that magic. My oldest is 10. While he still believes in Santa, we give him a very practical thing to believe in. And something’s that true, too. Whenever he asks if Santa is real, we ask him what he thinks. And then (my wife, our resident elf, takes the lead on this) we tell him that Santa was a real person, and a saint, nonetheless. And, like all saints, and all people for that matter, he became a spirit when he died. That spirit, as all spirits do, can be summoned through people.

This explanation gives credence to all the mall santas, and all the rumors out there that parents put those presents under the tree. The kid can still believe in Santa all he wants. The spirit of giving is alive in him, even, when he picks out presents for the family.

I’ve succumbed to spirit of the season and stopped struggling against all the disgusting commercial enterprises surrounded a very sacred holiday.

The magic is very alive in the house because of our youngest, the nugget. We should probably call her firecracker. Or perhaps perpetual motion machine. More apropos, even, is the energizer bunny. She keeps going and going and going.

She’s pretty stoked on Santa. And Christmas finally puts something enticing in front of her that she can tear open in a fury. It is one of her favorite pastimes, although normally she is tearing clothes from out of draws or pots from out under the stove. She’s ripe for Christmas magic.

But when the magic ends, we return to our Mondays, as we must. We return to our chores, and to whatever beliefs predominate our lives the other 364 days of the year. And while I know there are songs to encourage us to live the meaning of Christmas all through the year, but there’s just no way. Without work to worry about. With that long buildup beginning on Black Friday. All the planning and the saving and the spending. Christmas is so great exactly because we can’t take it with us all year round. It lasts only for a day, and that’s what makes it great.

So what do we with the first Monday after Christmas?

However we handle today will more likely set our year in motion than what we resolve to do for the new year. Habits run deeper than gimmicks.

Here’s to you and yours. Wishing you a Happy New Year and many mundane miracles to come.