Does You Celebrate the 12 Days of Christmas?

13 years ago

Many of my friends think it's very strange that we celebrate the 12 Days of Christmas, which means those days after Christmas up through Twelfth Night on January 6th, treating them as holiday time.

As a kid, the entire time from Thanksgiving through New Years was one long holiday for me. But, as an adult with a family, I quickly found the days leading up to Christmas were ones filled instead with cooking, cleaning, frantically shopping for gifts, wrapping, more cleaning, baking, etc. Christmas Eve itself was, and is, a joy. So is Christmas Day, despite the work it takes to host ~ and clean up after~ a yearly large gathering and dinner at our home all that afternoon and evening.

I started to look at the day after Christmas as the REAL holiday for me . . . but had to fight with DH not to take the tree down and "get things back to normal"! The days after Christmas Day became sort of anti-climatic and sad for me. All that work and it was over so quickly!

Sooooo, I finally put my foot down and insisted (strong-armed, actually) that we celebrate all 12 Days of Christmas . . . for my benefit, at least, and we've been doing it ever since. I don't mean to imply that DH takes all 12 off, but we do keep the trees and decs up and we plan special outings, etc for every day.

Everything is very low key, but festive, asnd no extra gifts are involved. Instead it's about time together and time for ourselves . . . time for me!

The 26th is Family Home Day. We spend the day in our pjs or sweats; NOBODY is invited over and we stay home all day and play. We eat wonderful leftovers on festive Christmas paper plates (to cut down on dishes needing washing) and we spend the entire day in our living room by the tree, playing games, playing with new gifts, chatting and napping. It's heavenly!

On the other days through Twelfth Night, we plan casual dinners with friends; catch new a new movie; have a fun dinner out; grill our burgers and watch the rest of our Christmas DVDs, especially the silly ones like "Chevy Chase's Christmas Vacation" and "A Christmas Story"; one day we head down to a wildlife refuge to see the snow geese, cranes, etc and do some hiking. We cook together, making homemade Posole (a delicious pork and hominy soup with chile and cilantro) that's traditionally served out here in New Mexico during the Christmas Season. On Twelfth Night, we have a special dinner and then I take the trees down the next morning.

So, do you do celebrate the Twelve Days of Christmas or at least part of them . . . and if so, what kinds of special things to you do on them?

I'm just looking to validate that I'm not the only crazy one ;^D . . . and also looking for other ideas on how to celebrate these wonderful days.

Lynn

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Comments (5)

tinam61
13 years ago
No, not specifically. But the days from Christmas Eve through New Years Day are holiday/vacation for us. We enjoy some down time during that time, sometimes take a short trip, many times do day-trips (antiquing!!), etc. They are special days and time for us to be together. How we spend them this year will also depend on much time my brother and SIL will spend here in town.

I've actually been very lucky with Christmas this year. We hosted Thanksgiving and my sister and her husband are hosting Christmas. I, of course, will take some dishes, but it will still be much easier than hosting. We are having a small gathering Christmas Eve, and I am serving finger foods, etc. I am not working much this week so I won't be pressured. I did a huge cleaning before Thanksgiving, so it's just been keeping things up, etc. Hubby is a big help with things, so we've been able to relax and enjoy the season.

Would love to hear more about what you all end up doing for the 12 days Lynn. Sounds lovely. I may have missed this, but is your son going to be able to be here?

tina
lynninnewmexico
Original Author
13 years ago
OMG, I should have proofread . . . I'm sorry!!!! That should have been "Do You" or "Does Anybody" (LOL!).
Tina: thanks for asking. No, DS will be at his current post at Ft. Gordon in Augusta, Georgia this Christmas. If he feels like being with family, my sis and her family live outside Atlanta and have invited him there. But, I think he and some Army buddies will be spending it together instead.
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Oakley
13 years ago
Technically no, but we do keep celebrating up until NYD. When the kids were home, we'd all hit the mall together the day after Christmas and buy things we didn't get but wanted...for a reasonable price. We'd cash in gift cards, then always go to our favorite restaurant.

We'd come home with new toys and have a blast. I have the Christmas Spirit from Christmas Even until New Year's Day. I usually don't get all cheery until then, but I do! We also see the kids often during that week since they take Christmas week off.

And we eat and eat and eat. :)
rich69b
13 years ago
We do! I came from another country, but eventhough we've been here in the US for quite sometime, we still keep that practice. Christmas ain't over until after Jan. 6th:)
rockmanor
13 years ago
When our kids were at home, we celebrated the 12 days of Christmas. We did do gifts, although only the one given on 12th Night/Epiphany/Feast of the Three Kings was a big one. The others were small, sometimes shared (such as a family movie), and for years they involved a treasure hunt each day to find them. They loved the treasure hunts so much that it didn't matter if the treasure was nothing more than a colorful pen or a candy bar. We kept up our tree and lights through Jan. 6th (even got a nastygram from the HOA in one neighborhood for not taking down the outside decorations fast enough.)

At least once, but more often on the 26th and again on the 2nd, we had "backwards day" for which we ate pizza for breakfast and french toast for supper and stayed in our pajamas all day. Since we homeschooled, we scheduled a break from Christmas Eve until Jan. 7th. Our kids were into Legos, K'Nex, Puzz3D, and all sorts of building toys, so we spent a lot of our time working together to assemble new sets. We also watched the movies (VHS back then) they received, as well as old favorites.

We took turns choosing the menu for each day so that everyone had favorite foods (even when that meant PBJs for supper.) On Epiphany, we enjoyed our first King Cake of the season (which runs until Mardi Gras.) Whoever got the "baby" (we used a plastic baby hidden from the bottom, but some people use a large nut) was the King (or Queen) of the Feast.

These days, we're not together for most of the 12 days of Christmas (if at all.) I order King Cakes for each of us from a bakery in New Orleans that delivers them on (or the day before) Epiphany, but that's all we do now.

Does You Celebrate the 12 Days of Christmas?

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tinam61

lynninnewmexico
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Does You Celebrate the 12 Days of Christmas?

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tinam61

lynninnewmexicoOriginal Author

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lynninnewmexico
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