12 day countdown to Christmas!

Today is the 12th and thus it's 12 days until Christmas, and so, by rights, we can launch a new tradition today celebrating the 12 days of Christmas. What fun it can be to countdown the visit from Santa, the opening of gifts, the gathering of family around the hearth (if we had a hearth).

I stand corrected. According to David Bratcher: "The Twelve Days of Christmas is probably the most misunderstood part of the church year among Christians who are not part of liturgical church traditions. Contrary to much popular belief, these are not the twelve days before Christmas, but in most of the Western Church are the twelve days from Christmas until the beginning of Epiphany (January 6th; the 12 days count from December 25th until January 5th). In some traditions, the first day of Christmas begins on the evening of December 25th with the following day considered the First Day of Christmas (December 26th). In these traditions, the twelve days begin December 26 and include Epiphany on January 6." (Scroll down on that page for the potential theological references from the famed song, "The 12 days of Christmas."

As a procrastinator, I like this even better, for now I can work up a tradition and deploy it after Christmas, getting more mileage out of the break before I have to return to work, too.