The British and their former empire have a name for the day after Christmas. I have long thought Americans needed a name for the 26th, as it marks the end of what many find a season rife with expectations hard to fulfill. In the old days in England, Boxing Day marked the day that the British upper crust handed out presents (boxes) to the staff that worked for them, as that staff had all been busy putting on the Christmas festivities for their employers.
I am, personally, a little short on staff, but I do recognize the mailman, and the ladies that clean my house twice a month with cash, but long before Christmas so that they can use what they have earned in helping with their gift giving.
But that does not mean that I do not want to name that day when we are recovering from relative, gift, and sugar overloads. In my younger days I would have voted for I Made It Day. Somehow it had all gotten done in spite of the cat climbing the Christmas tree, a child with a case of the flu, and a turkey that might have been a little overcooked.
As my children aged and could go out and attack malls, returning ill-fitting gifts on their own and spending their Christmas cash, I would have voted for All I Want Is Silence Day. Hopefully, I got a new book for Christmas, and I could relax on the couch ignoring the tumble of unwrapped gifts drifting under the tree and delve into a good book with a leftover turkey sandwich on my lap.
Now the demands of Christmas are much less. The tree is put up without a two-year-old demanding that her decoration be on top of the tree. The gifts can be more useful and perhaps a little prosaic, but at least the hours spent looking for a CD that no one has ever heard of is over. We are now invited to our children’s houses and have the quiet joy of watching what their Christmas’s have evolved into. So now I might name the day, The Day of Memories Past and Present. And I celebrate it in front of a warm fire, with an old, treasured book, and the leftovers with which I have been gifted. Maybe we do not actually need to name the day after all, but just enjoy it as it changes with our stages of life. But then a last thought --- there always is 364 Shopping Days Until Christmas Day………… I’m just sayin’.