I’m sure many will agree that the week between Christmas and New Year’s is a bit of an awkward time. The hustle and bustle of preparing for Christmas is finally behind us and the eager anticipation of a new year is still a week away. It can be a depressing time for some folks.
My grandmother and I began a tradition many years ago when I was a small boy. I think it actually started as a gift of mine that was left behind. But regardless of exactly how it started, it was a fun way of easing this awkward week. I remember Mama Patrick giving me a toy truck right after Christmas. She called it a “Christmas Leave” gift, because it was given as Christmas was “leaving.” It became a fun “new holiday” that we enjoyed for many years. Years later, this original holiday serves to remind me that the spirit of Christmas Day should stay with long after that one day has passed. It really should be something that becomes part of us throughout the whole year. At the end of Charles Dickens’ “A Christmas Carols,” he says this of Scrooge, “And it was always said of him that he knew how to keep Christmas well, if any man alive possessed the knowledge. May that truly be said of us, and all of us!”