“Old Christmas is past
Twelfth Tide is the last
And we bid you adieu,
Great joy to the new!”
—The King, traditional English Christmas song
Today is Twelfth Night, Epiphany. We end our Christmas celebration at midnight. We’ll pack up the Christmas decorations and put them away in the “attic” above the bed. We’ll put the totes on the outside, as we always forget something that needs to be tucked in a few days later. We still have a few Christmas goodies to nibble while we work, and we’ll play Christmas music all day till bedtime. The next morning, we’ll arise gratefully to the “every day.”
This year there were no gifts from the Three Kings left in shoes in the arctic entryway. However, I take a lot of satisfaction that Aly is still on Christmas break until her college term begins again on the 9th.
There’s an old Christmas superstition that every needle left in one’s home from the Christmas boughs after Twelfth Night, that many goblins will infest the house that year. Strong incentive to clean house thoroughly after the holidays! We’d be doomed. While we might get the greens out, we always have spruce needles in the house. Actually, spruce needles, as sharp and insidious as they are, may as well be goblins in our life.
No matter. We’ve had our Christmas fun, and now we’re ready to get back to our day-to-day fun. As the venerable old song says, “Great joy to the new!”