Ford column- Down from holiday high

By Emily Ford

January, you are such a downer.

After all the planning, thought and preparation that goes into the holidays, after the gratefulness of Thanksgiving and the joy of Christmas and the exhilaration of New Year's Eve, I always feel a little morose when January arrives.

And stays and stays.

January simultaneously depresses and stresses me. Juxtaposed with the emptiness of the post-Christmas blues, we're faced with the overwhelming task of returning life, home and work to normal.

We tend to suspend normalcy from Thanksgiving to New Year's Day. We eat, spend and drink more than usual. We stay up later, exercise less and expect more.

We over-indulge in many ways during the holidays and wake up to a harsh reality on Jan. 2, when it's over.

But it's really not. Just the fun part is over.

Undecorating and returning gifts and tackling the chores that have been on hold and dealing with all those bills from all those purchases quickly fill the void left by friends and family and eggnog and caroling and shiny gift wrap.

Anyone else out there still struggling to come up from under the Christmas aftermath?

Still have your tree up? Still have Christmas lights on the banister? Still have a stack of holiday cards to address and mail?

Me too.

Not only this year's card, but last year's card as well. Last year's Valentine's Day card, in fact.

Christmas has been my favorite holiday since I was a little girl, when I would lie in bed on Christmas Eve, absolutely shaking with anticipation.

The gifts, of course, caused much excitement and hours of speculation, but everything else about Christmas thrilled me just about as much as ripping off that wrapping paper.

Relatives we only saw once a year, games we only played at Christmas, food we only ate during the holidays all made Christmas special and thrilling.

Only when I became a parent did I realize how much work went into creating that experience.

I still adore Christmas traditions and love sharing them with my children, especially decorations.

But is there anything less appealing after the holidays than dragging 10 plastic tubs out of the attic, stowing Santa and Rudolph and the baby Jesus and schlepping them all back up?

Oh, January.

The holidays inevitably come to an end, but what if the merriment, joy and generosity which marks that extraordinary time of year doesn't?

We can still enjoy time with family and friends, perhaps even time that is less frenzied than our interactions during holiday parties and at Christmas concerts.

The feeling of Christmas doesn't have to stop.

Yes, the decorations must be stowed, the rituals must pass, the traditions must be tucked away until next year.

But what a different world this would be if we kept a little of that holiday spirit burning for the 11 other months on the calendar.

Like Ebenezer Scrooge pledged in Charles Dickens' "A Christmas Carol," we can honor Christmas in our heart, and try to keep it all the year.

Contact Emily Ford at eford@salisburypost.com