Are y'all tired? I mean, tonight's the big night, but the work still isn't done. It won't end until the all-important Santa Snack has been prepared, displayed to best advantage and settled near the tree. (Sources tell me that the fat man hasn't had time to shop for Mrs. Claus this year, so the wise might consider boxes of gourmet chocolates, attractively wrapped, in case he has to do a little regifting.)

Some of you crazy elves aren't even reading this, but flipping to the ads as you head out shopping.

Each December, I envision planning more than one big annual holiday party. Maybe also some cider and dessert for the neighbors, or some couples for dinner. But those extra get-togethers never happen, and there was little hope this year.

I ran into an interesting situation: People had other parties to go to, more so than in previous seasons. I hope this is a sign that more people are entertaining -- I'm all in favor of parties, especially if I'm invited and I don't have to do any of the work.

Some friends had to pass on our party altogether because of other commitments, and others arrived from or were heading to at least one other festivity.

December is becoming the worst possible time to have a holiday party.

A group of my friends has given up on December completely. We schedule our holiday meet-and-eat in January. My husband's company has its party in January, as well, and I've heard from other folks that office parties are drifting beyond Dec. 31.

There are just so many weekends between Thanksgiving and Christmas Day. Weekday parties run up against the tornado of school and church events, shopping, work, basketball season.

The December Christmas/Hanukkah season is a holiday time with a deadline. As an old newspaperwoman, I know what that is. One reason I got a food editor job many years ago was that I could meet deadlines.

However, a deadline isn't always a deadline. My husband, who works in computers, once came home and said he'd missed a deadline for a big project. Shocked, I asked what happened. "Oh, we just moved the deadline," he said.

That's what we need to do with the holidays.

Now, I have a problem seeing them creep into November. I do hate to see the Thanksgiving feast overshadowed. Although when I was a kid, my grandmother was seen as the master of advance planning because she always addressed her Christmas cards on the day after Thanksgiving, along with putting me, her craft slave, to work stuffing and sewing a couple dozen felt bird ornaments.

My family was usually the first on the street to put up a Christmas tree, around Dec. 1. My sister, who had Down syndrome, would start begging for the tree when the first holiday ads appeared on TV. My parents considered the beginning of the holiday month the absolute earliest it could arrive.

January, however, is ripe for holiday extension. There's even precedent.

In many parts of the world, including Russia, and in some Greek Orthodox churches, people celebrate Christmas in January. This is often called Old Christmas because it goes back to the old Julian calendar.

On North Carolina's Outer Banks, residents of the small town of Rodanthe still celebrate Old Christmas each year. Legend says that the practice is a holdover from Colonial days in the 1700s. The remote colony didn't get the word that England had switched to the Gregorian calendar (which shortened the year and moved Christmas to Dec. 25) for years, and decided to stubbornly stick with their tradition.

A community party with an oyster roast is followed by the arrival of Old Buck. Coastal stories say that Old Buck was a wild bull that terrorized the town until he was finally felled. Now, folks dress in a bull costume and parade Old Buck through the festivities.

The Rodanthe celebration is near Jan. 6, the date of Epiphany, also called Twelfth Night and the reason behind the longest and most oddly adapted carol, "The Twelve Days of Christmas."

Why not continue the party into January? There's nothing else to do. It's cold.

What we need are some themes, and here are some to get you started:

* Wear Great Stuff You Got for Christmas: Show off those new clothes; removal of tags optional. Serve neat food (no drippy dips) and offer beverages in sippy cups.

* Stinky Gift Swap: Get rid of that sweater with the demented-looking Scotties on it that Aunt Maude gave you by swapping it for someone else's unwanted gift. Serve leftover fruitcake.

* Twelfth Night Film Festival: Show every film version of Shakespeare's plays, including the four-hour Kenneth Branagh "Hamlet." Talkest thou in Elizabethan style all the eve. Serve mead and Stilton cheese.

* July in January: If you can have Christmas in July, why not? I actually attended one of these, years ago. The host turned the heat up to 80, told guests to wear shorts and Hawaiian shirts, put palm trees in the corners of the rooms and sand all over his hardwood floors. The menu included garishly colored tropical drinks.

An editor once told me, "nothing's over like Christmas." But it doesn't have to be. Take a long winter's nap, enjoy your day, and extend the holiday feelings into 2007.

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