Welcome to, when is it? Oh, yes, Friday.
I always remember, as a child, wondering what we were supposed to do on those indeterminate days between Christmas and New Year. Of course in the good old days, Christmas was for the kids and New Year was for the grown-ups. It took a long time to work this out and how it would affect the grown up TJ.
In the vast tract of time that sits between then and now, things have got even more vague. Back in the day, we had Christmas Eve, when everyone was still at work, 2 days of mild indulgence and then we all went back about our business. Only kids were left with spare time on their hands and a raft of broken-on-boxing day presents to lament over. A week later we were allowed to drink a small port and lemonade and stay up until a minute past midnight before being shuffled off to bed so the grown-ups could do whatever it was they did. New years day we were thrown out of the house to play while all traces of the 'Holiday Period' were wiped from the face of the planet. Normalcy waited for us upon our return. Jan 2 was a normal working day.
Now it seems as if this period has had a massive shot of adrenaline and not one part of it has remained unexploited, ripe for monetisation (a word now, really, although it should have a Z in it) and wrung to within an inch of it's life by the marketing machine that is our life. Holidays are longer, productivity takes a dive and the only casualties are the poor shop workers who get about ten minutes off before diving back into the fray. Astonishingly enough I'm having three weeks off this year, partly to defray my holidays I didn't have time to take because I was so busy this year. I'm hoping I have enough to keep me busy so i don't go off the rails with boredom. But this is why I titled this so. That period between the two end of year dates seems to generate even more of a sense of ennui than ever before. No time seems to pass between the sound of wrapping paper tearing and a sense of futility about it all wrapping its clammy fingers around your heart.
Doubtless social historians will look back on this period of time, where senseless worship of an unprovable deity manifested itself in a frenzy of consumerism that leads to nothing more worthwhile than an elevated end of year balance sheet for the merchants and an empty wallet and a five week month for everyone else. If we are going to secularise an already shaky para-religious ceremony, perhaps we should look for something more substantial than tinsel and telly. Alternative Christmas, where are you?
