Christmas Is Over

The decorations are put away for another year. The last Christmas cards arrive with an acknowledgement that they're late, but still in time for New Years greetings. The radio has stopped playing Christmas songs and the Christmas CDs are returned to storage, replaced by classical CDs. The alleged War on Christmas, allegedly being conducted by atheists, secularists, and those persons who want their speech to be politically correct, halts for a truce, awaiting another season to renew its imagined onslaught of neutral greetings and misplaced emphasis. All Hail! The weather even turns mild, if just for an occasional day or two, mocking Winter and the fury of wind, snow, ice, and cold. Retail sales are tallied and found to be lacking, compared to previous years. Students are awaiting new school terms after the old year's calendar is replaced by the new year's. The media has switched to full year-end mode with a recap of the news stories and milestones of the past 12 months. This year, in this sense, at this time, is no different than last. I still look forward to the new year with hope, but what I'd like most would be just to leave some stuff behind.