Boxing Day Comes But Once a Year

Christmas has come and gone, and Boxing Day is nearly gone as well. Once again, I’ll take the opportunity to ask the federal government and the several states to make Boxing Day a holiday: December 26 usually, or December 27 if Christmas is on a Saturday. C’mon, it’s my birthright as a speaker of the English language.

No one’s listening in the halls of Congress or the legislatures, unfortunately. Maybe we need to come up with a name whose origins aren't lost in the mists of time, something more American. But I can't think what that would be.

A goodly number of presents ended up under the Christmas tree this year. Ann’s heard of Santa, of course, knows his name and visage, but hasn’t mastered the lore – that I expect by next year. (Or quite mastered the timing. This morning she was under the impression, briefly, that Santa was coming back, and soon.)

Not long after Christmas last year, only a few days in fact, Lilly asked me, “Santa isn’t real, is he?” in such a way that I knew she’d figured it out. Probably she’d been suspicious for quite a while, but didn’t want to come out and say anything before Christmas, just in case he turned out to be real after all. So we talked about the notion of a fictional character, and the Santa variety.

About two weeks ago, she wanted me to confirm that Santa was fictional, and I assured her that he was. Seems that not everyone in the third grade has made the leap from literal to figurative Santa, and she’d heard them talking about him. I would have thought they had made the leap by now, but actually I don’t know that many third graders. Lilly has access to current opinion in her class much more than I do.