With gifts exchanged, family visited, and leftovers put away, another Christmas is in the books, to the dismay of many and the relief of some.
So with our holiday obligations finally taken care of and our free time opening back up, why is it so difficult to reestablish our regular pace? Where is the motivation to do anything, and why does no one know what day it is?
Emerging from the full immersion of the Christmas season on the morning of the 26th can feel almost like jet lag. You rise in a sparkling world of red and green that can no longer justify its own existence. Then begins the decidedly humdrum task of dismantling the decorations, stowing away the tree, and returning your immediate surroundings to their mundane origins.
The odd feelings that persist once the holidays have subsided manifest themselves differently for everyone. Those with a deep appreciation for Christmas who spend each year looking forward to December often experience an emptiness after the holidays akin to that which some feel during the onset of winter, when days get shorter and decreasing temperatures put many outdoor activities on hold.
On the other end of the spectrum, those who experience high stress during the holiday festivities can struggle to get themselves moving again once they finally experience some relief from the fast-paced, highly interactive nature of the holiday season.
Whether your holiday demeanor more closely resembles that of Will Ferrell’s Buddy the Elf or Jim Carrey’s The Grinch (or Scrooge, he played both so you can take your pick,) the common variable is that the Christmas season is bound to shake up your routine in some capacity, no matter who you are.
It is often said that human beings are creatures of habit. Everything in our lives from our employment to our education to our nightly rest is predicated on the established routines by which we conduct our business. Ian Newby-Clark wrote for Psychology Today that the dozens of ingrained habits we amass over time streamline several activities which we are used to repeating, with the example given being the preparation of breakfast in one’s own home. For most, the process is essentially second nature, while the same task at another location could result in a much more significant mental load.
Additional loads such as these are commonplace during the holidays, when the expected structure of a regular weekday is substantially altered, be it by travel, scheduling changes, guests in the home, or any other number of possible factors. This speaks to just how much weight these additional mental processes carry, and how much weight is being added to our likely already lofty expectations of ourselves.
While the holidays have become widely accepted by many as a significant stressor, the initial idea, it seems, was to provide folks with opportunities to slow down and enjoy the simple things, such as tasty food and family interaction. As such, many are fortunate enough to receive time off from their usual commitments during this time of year.
The easing of certain expectations can be a double-edged sword, however. When left to our own devices and without the usual boundaries in place, people tend to veer off the beaten path fairly quickly. Between excessive travel, excessive food consumption, longer days and nights, and greater indulgence in the surface-level pleasures of Christmas treats such as eggnog, for many, the body itself is undergoing a litany of very real physical adjustments which are affecting the state of the brain.
Students during the holidays act as an effective representation of this phenomenon as well. Christmas break is one of the most substantial breaks given over the course of the school year for everyone from preschool students to adults in college. Freed from the chains of their morning alarms, students commonly spend their Christmas break periods completely obliterating their sleep schedules. During this time, hours that may normally have been spent resting are spent conducting investigations of the inner workings of a new game received for Christmas or of the effects of Mountain Dew on an already dehydrated, over-exerted body at 3 o’clock in the morning. Needless to say, a few days of this lifestyle can bottom-out a person’s overall effectiveness with relative ease.
As is often the case with human behavior, when folks feel themselves begin to deviate from the norm of what is expected, they will often make a concerted effort to get themselves back in line with what is considered to be normal, or at the very least will try not to draw attention to the deviation. In the case of this post-holiday phenomenon, however, it isn’t too difficult to notice friends and loved ones experiencing something similar. The widespread nature of this foggy lethargy perpetuates a sort of acceptance of its pervasiveness; a pass, if you will.
An article for Walden University discussing conformity and shifting attitudes in a group setting acknowledges how our own perceptions of the behavior of those around us and of those we consider to be within our social circles can easily, and drastically, affect our own behaviors and our justifications for those behaviors. Considering this, it should come as no surprise that folks tend to get complacent at the end of the year.
So as another eventful year draws to a close, try not to beat yourself up too much about that extra nap. While perhaps the decorations still need to be taken down, folk wisdom dictates the period between Christmas Day and New Year’s to be a grace period, so feel free to move at your own pace for a while. Whether you’re missing Christmas already, or are just happy to be past it for a while, try to afford yourself some grace as we approach 2022.