There are many who don't realize that Christmas Day, December 25, is actually the first day of Christmas. Yes, as immortalized by a "partridge in a pear tree" in the popular carol.
On the second day of Christmas, also known as St. Stephen's Day, "Good King Wenceslaus" went out--maybe he was searching for those famous turtle doves at an after Christmas blowout sale. On the twelfth day, according to tradition, "We Three Kings," aka the three Wise Men or the Magi, visited the newborn Christ child.
The Christmas season only begins on Christmas Day. Why are people in such a hurry to finish with this special time of year? I, for one, am not. My Christmas tree and decorations will at last come down this weekend, after the twelve drummers have finished drumming. That "star of wonder" we call Christmas time that lights the close of each of our years can now be stored away until we reach the end of the 2006 calendar's journey.
