Re: What did you do in the days after Santa came?

12/27/07 - posted by Frank Dunnigan

Christmas was always a multi-day affair in our family...When I was small, Santa always came on Christmas morning, when I would be tearing into the pile of toys by 5 or 6 a.m. As I got older & started spending time at friends' houses and going to Midnight Mass at St. Ignatius, my parents gladly switched Santa's arrival to Chrismas Eve, which became a casual evening of finger foods and desserts. There was always someone among our extended family of cousins and old family friends visiting every night during the coming week before New Year's Day (Jewish friends never had to explain Hanukkah to me--I understood the concept completely), so there were always still a dozen or gifts lingering under the tree.

Adhering to my grandmother's edict that the Wise Men did not arrive until the feast of the Epiphany on January 6th, we re-arranged them on a daily basis starting on Christmas Eve (when they were hidden behind the manger) so that each day until the 6th, they were coming closer & closer (while gazing at the star from a distance), but they could not be placed in front of the nativity scene until the morning of the 6th.

Food continued to play a part--the remnants of the Chex mix, boxes of Christmas cookies, and egg nog made great treats any time of the day. Christmas Day dinner was always turkey, providing leftovers for sandwiches until the New Year's ham came along. There were still Polish sausage and pannetone available for breakfast every morning until well beyond the first of January. Add to that the inevitable boxes of See's candy that my father received from his co-workers, along with Mom's home-made fudge & my aunt's banana bread loaves, and you had a family that was usually ready to pose for a Weight Watchers "before" photograph by that first week of January.

Mom followed the church calendar closely, and declared that once January 6th came & went, Christmas WAS OVER. In one day, the 7th, she would box all the decorations, clean out the kitchen and toss any remaining holiday snacks, put the house back in order, and confiscate for re-gifting any presents left unclaimed under the tree. I think that she always regarded Christmas as being akin to summer vacation for school kids--nice, but even nicer to get back to her normal routine!