When I was a kid, I was always depressed Christmas night and the day after, with my spirits gradually lightening as the new year approached. I don't get depressed anymore, not at all. It's odd, though: I intensely look forward to Christmas for a month, then I'm happy it's mostly over and look forward to things returning to normal. Emotionally, it works out quite well.
My wife and I still remember our childhood post-Christmas blues, though, so we continue the Christmas celebration for the children. We get them a small gift (some re-gifts from previous years, many dollar store items, miscellaneous other things) for each of the "twelve days of Christmas," with a more substantial gift for Epiphany (one that we held back on Christmas morning). It seems to work. We started the 12 Days of Christmas tradition as an after-thought, and the whole things costs a small fraction of the Christmas Day celebration, but the kids really enjoy it. It seems to take the edge of the let-down.
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Today is the Feast of St. Stephen, incidentally. The good old Catholic Church loves its paradoxes: The day of intense joy followed by a day of sobering reality. Joy and martyrdom, love and hatred of love, Everlasting Life and grisly death.
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Well, that's it for today. I have to get to the office at some point. I hope everyone's Christmas season is going well.
