It seemed like such a good idea at the time: hold Christmas this year when everybody could be together at once. So when one of the older kids had to use up some vacation time from work–and, okay, had to go to 80-degree Aruba with her husband, the poor things–we decided we’d just hold Christmas a week later rather than forego the Whole Family Celebration Bit.

And let’s face it, who can’t use an extra week in December? I was, frankly, secretly thrilled.

But now…well, I’m still not ready for Christmas.

I have three scarves to finish knitting, and somehow the Gift Piles for the kids have all come unbalanced, despite my best planning. I need to go back to the mall for just a few more things to get the piles all even again. And oh yeah, buy the stuff for the stockings. Figure out what we’ll have for Christmas dinner. Figure out where I hid the presents that I did buy. Figure out where I hid the stockings.

I know, I know. Everyone else had all this fun last week, while I was lounging around, writing my novel and pretending it wasn’t the end of the year. While my friends were out purchasing turkeys, wrapping presents, cooking vast quantities of food for family members who are all on different diets, running out to drugstores in the middle of the night for “hostess gifts,” I stayed calm and serene on my lofty perch of Not Celebrating Yet.

I was even a little judgmental, I’ll admit that now. From where I stood, it seemed so clear that Christmas really has gotten out of hand for everybody. Why, I wanted to ask everyone, do we drive ourselves crazy trying to create a perfect holiday atmosphere? Really, what is all this hassle about? Shouldn’t Christmas be more fun and less work?

On the real Christmas Day–I believe that was yesterday–we slept until about 11 a.m., (six hours later than I usually get to sleep on Christmas morning), then ate my friend Nancy’s traditional Christmas cinnamon buns for breakfast, drifted off to the movies in the late afternoon, then came home and puttered around the kitchen, making a dinner of crab legs and lobster bisque. 

It was kind of nice being on the outside of Christmas for once. Lovely, really.

But now that everybody else is taking down trees, unstringing lights, putting away their Christmas sweaters with the reindeer on them, I can see I’m going to have a tough time whipping up holiday spirit. I realized today that the Christmas mood is contagious. Like the flu, you catch it from other people who are all bustling around, humming Christmas carols and complaining about how busy they are.

And now that everybody else is over it–let’s face it, you’re all resting up and in recovery–do we really have to manufacture it all ourselves? Maybe not.

Maybe this year we’ll just be happy to get together with family, and we’ll open presents and eat dinner together–but it won’t really be Christmas. It’ll be something else entirely.

This year Christmas was calm, it was serene…we got a lot of sleep, we ate great food, and then it was over.