What the 12 Days of Christmas Mean to Me

In the early morning hours of December 26 while Princess (my sweet Ragdoll kitty) and I sat in the reflection of the Christmas tree lights and watched the rising sun cast pink and blue hues across the sky, I started to think about the 12 Days of Christmas.

The previous 25 days were packed with holiday rehearsals and performances, winter celebrations and crowded get togethers. Did we enjoy these days jam-packed with “holiday goodness?” Sure, we gleefully tuned our radio to the local holiday music station while driving from point A to point B. And it was a lot of fun to chop down our Christmas tree and trim it while White Christmas played on Netflix in the background. But it was fleeting. When did we get the chance to sit still and simply soak it all in?

We didn’t. And this occurred to me the morning it was supposed to be all over. Another Christmas crossed off the list. The holidays passed in a red and green blur; social media was already focused on the next best thing.

I reflected on the days ahead and something clicked. It occurred to me that these 12 days, the days between Christmas and the beginning of January, would indeed be our time to celebrate. All of the Christmas decorations would stay up, the tree would continue its daily watering. We would drink hot cocoa teetering with marshmallows and piled high with whipped cream every day, stream holiday music, watch all of the holiday movies we simply didn’t have time for before, play boardgames, see holiday shows and Christmas exhibits and just be with each other, enjoying the feelings the holiday brings.

So here I am on day 7, listening to the Amazon Classical Christmas playlist after just watching A Castle for Christmas on Netflix and playing a very hearty game of Pictionary. Later, we will see the broadway production of The Elf at a local playhouse. These holiday moments continue through the very end of January 5 when midnight strikes and the holiday season will come to a nice, slow end. And we will have had the time and focus to soak in each and every moment.

Of course, no reflection is truly a reflection unless it is included in my journal. In my papercrafting stash, I’ve had various 12 Days of Christmas stamps and washi tape that I never used because it never really seemed applicable to my life. You know how functional I am and I couldn’t find a use. But since my own personal enlightenment, I’ve dusted of a sweet little stamp pack I purchased from Hobby Lobby probably close to a decade ago and used some recently purchased gold embossing powder to make ephemera for my December journal.

These little tags bring me so much joy as I document our 12 Days of Christmas in my journal. With existing tags I printed and fussy cut as my base, I used the traditional embossing technique to bring these stamps to life.