From the archives: The 12 days of Christmas...start 9 days from now!

After answering my friend Kim's question on Twitter not long ago, I thought it might be a good time to revisit this post from December 2007.

Suzanne made a little goof in her daily DearReader.com letter (on December 17, 2007), and I wonder if this is a common misperception:

"This morning, first thing when I woke up, the realization hit me--Christmas is almost here--should have started singing The Twelve Days of Christmas four days ago, because there are only eight days left."

Image via Wikipedia

No, Suzanne, you're fine. But the confusion is understandable, I guess, in a time and place where signs of Christmas start showing up in September and are hard to find by December 27. The "Twelve Days of Christmas" aren't just an annoying song - they're a traditional season of celebration that begins on December 25 and lasts till January 6, originating in the idea that it took that many days for the Magi to reach Bethlehem after they saw the star. (Do you think that Mary, Joseph, and Baby Jesus really hung out in a stable for almost two weeks?) Wikipedia says:

The Twelve Days of Christmas and the associated evenings of those twelve days (Twelve-tide), are the festive days beginning the evening of Christmas Day (December 25) through the morning of Epiphany (January 6). The associated evenings of the twelve days begin on the evening before the specified day. Thus, the first night of Christmas is December 24–25, and Twelfth Night is January 5–6. This period is also known as Christmastide.
Over the centuries, differing churches and sects of Christianity have changed the actual traditions, time frame, and their interpretations. St. Stephen's Day, for example, is December 26 in the Western Church and December 27 in the Eastern Church. December 26 is Boxing Day in the United Kingdom and some of its former colonies; December 28 is Childermas or the Feast of the Innocents. Currently, the 12 days and nights are celebrated in widely varying ways around the world. For example, some give gifts only on Christmas night, some only on Twelfth Night, and some each of the 12 nights. What remains constant is celebrating the birth of Jesus on December 25th, and a period of twelve days and nights following leading to Epiphany.

The countdown leading up to Christmas? There are 24 days to that one, and they're called Advent.

I'm wondering why things have come to this - a huge buildup to December 25, and then "bye-bye, and thank goodness this is over" for another year! It's easy to blame it on commercialization, but complaints about that have been around for my whole 46 years and probably even longer. Granted, the season does seem to start being commercialized earlier every year, and I think that gets some people burnt out on the whole thing before it even arrives. And while I've mentioned a number of times that I haven't been a churchgoer for a while, I think that the fact that the secular elements of the Christmas season seem to be taking over in a lot of places is probably a big factor in the buildup. Santa Claus is the big guy (in more ways than one), and once he has come and gone, there's nothing more to talk about.

We've got decorations up and a lot of the shopping done, but I'm not in an especially "holiday" mood quite yet. I'm starting to feel that if my Christmas spirit is going to arrive late, it might as well stay longer, so I'm trying to move into a "Twelve Days of Christmas" mindset. This isn't something I've talked about with my family, since I've just begun to put a name to it, so we have no plans to observe any of it formally - no Boxing Day, no Twelfth Night - but I really think I want to recognize that Christmas Day isn't the end of the celebration; it's supposed to be the start. I'd like to try to keep Christmas for those twelve days following, which makes me a little less stressed that I don't feel totally into keeping it just yet; and I'm not going to stress out over exactly how I'm going to do it, either. Not stressing is kind of the point.

I'm not talking about twelve days of crazy gift-giving, though:

Twelve drummers drumming

Eleven pipers piping

Ten lords a-leaping

Nine ladies dancing

Eight maids a-milking

Seven swans a-swimming

Six geese a-laying

Five golden rings

Four calling birds

Three French hens

Two turtle doves

And a partridge in a pear tree

Or the items on Bob and Doug McKenzie's list either (I really tried to find a video of this, but wasn't too happy with what I found, so I decided to skip it):

Doug	You start.
Bob	Okay. On the first day of Christmas, my true love gave to me: a beer.
Doug	On the second day of Christmas, my true love gave to me: two turtlenecks,
Bob	And a beer. (Okay...) On the third day of Christmas, my true love gave to me: three French toast,
Doug	Two turtlenecks,
Bob	And a beer. (Okay...)
Doug	There should be more there, eh?
Bob	Where? On the... go.
Doug	Fourth day of Christmas, my true love gave to me: four pounds of backbacon,
Bob	Three French toast,
Doug	Two turtlenecks,
Bob	And a beer.
Doug	In a tree. See, you need more.
Bob	Fifth day of Christmas, my true love gave to me: five golden touques!
Doug	Four pounds of backbacon,
Bob	Three French toast,
Doug	Two turtlenecks,
Bob	And a beer, what was it?
Together	In a tree!
Bob	Okay, on the sixth... go.
Doug	Of Christmas, my true love gave to me: six packs of two-four,
Bob & BG Singers	Five golden touques!
Doug	Four pounds of backbacon,
Bob	Three French toast,
Doug	Two turtlenecks,
Bob	And a beer,
Together	In a tree!
Bob	Okay.
Doug	Okay.
Bob	On the seventh day of Christmas, my true love gave to me: seven packs of smokes,
Doug	(Nice gift...) Oh, six packs of two-four! (BG Singers also sing "nice gift".)
Bob & BG Singers	Five golden touques!
Doug	Four pounds of backbacon,
Bob	Three French toast,
Doug	Two turtlenecks,
Bob	And a beer,
Together	In a tree!
Bob	Right, I keep forgetting.
Doug	Phew! This should just be the two days of Christmas, it's too hard for us!
Bob	Um...
Doug	Go, hoser.
Bob	Oh.
Together	Eigth day of Christmas, my true love gave to me:
Doug	Eight comic books,
All	Seven packs of smokes, six packs of two-four,
	(Bob and Doug become unsynchronized with the BG Singers, and quit singing.)
BG Singers	Five golden touques! Four pounds of backbacon, three French toast, two turtlenecks,
All	And a beer,
Doug	On my tree!
Bob	Yeah. That beer's empty. Okay. Day,
BG Singers	Twelve!
Bob	Uh, twelve.
Doug	Good day, and welcome to day twelve.
BG Singers	Five golden touques!
All	Four pounds of backbacon, three French toast, two turtlenecks, and a beer, in a tree!

(I always liked their version. Please don't judge me.)

I'm just thinking that there's a long tradition of Christmas Day being the start of a special time of year, not the end, and that it would be nice to move back toward that. What do you think?