The Day After Christmas

It’s the second day after Christmas, but it’s a Monday so we’ll call it the day after as far as day-after activities go. We all have our after-Christmas routines.

My mother’s routine rarely varied. The only thing that might hold her up is a blizzard like the one the Northeast is experiencing today. We had our one inch here yesterday, but most of my family up north is hunkering down today. One household is sick and two young ones, with their baby, are headed back to Massachusetts in this stuff. I’ll be glad when everyone reports in on Facebook, so I’ll know everyone is safe.

If this was a usual day after Christmas, however, most of us would be following our after-Christmas rituals. For my mother, that meant taking down the tree, first of all. All the ornaments were taken off carefully and stored away in their special boxes or wrapped up in tissue. When we were on Fulton Street that meant everything had to be carried back up into the attic--up two flights of stairs.

All the rest of the Christmas decorations would also be taken down and packed up till next year. These days those people who have huge outside light displays must take a full day with family help to get everything stored away. We didn’t have such displays in the South End. Putting the Christmas tree in the window so it could be seen outside was about the extent of our light display.

When everything was put away and all the Christmas tree sprills and tinsel were vacuumed up, Christmas was officially over. Everything looked so bare and depressing in a way. It was always a big let down for me.

To remedy the let down many housewives felt, what better way to pick themselves up than to go shopping. The White Sales were not far off after all. Meanwhile, after Christmas sales abounded and the inevitable returns for stuff that didn’t fit. The lines for that chore were always long the day after Christmas.

This time is also good for buying all your Christmas decorations at 50% off to save for next year. Opening that particular box next Christmas will be a nice surprise to look forward to.

It’s also a good idea to buy next year’s Christmas cards. They are always discounted. I save the current year’s cards so I’ll be able to make my new Christmas card list next year. If I buy cards now, I will store them altogether.

The only thing left to dispose of is food. Our refrigerator is still full of the ham we got as a gift and leftover seafood I sent away to Graffam’s in Rockport for. We’ll eat on it all this week and maybe part of the next week. If you didn’t manage to send your Christmas guests out the door with a package of leftovers, you now have to look up some recipes to incorporate your leftovers. I’ll try to help you out in that department in January recipes.

I hope all you folks up North have enough leftovers in the house so that you don’t have to go out in this storm. Snuggle down after you dismantle everything. Have some eggnog if any is left and settle down with a good book or watch a movie on T.V.  The snowblowing can wait.

Thanks for listening.