New Year’s Day
Christmas Octave • Kalends • Solemnity of Mary
Celebrate the New Year and The Eighth Day of Christmastide
About New Year’s Day
New Year’s Day is, at a minimum, an opportunity to recover from last night’s revelry. If you’re ready for more seasonal cheer, it’s also a continuation of Christmastide; indeed, today is the Octave of Christmas. Keep the tree glowing, the carols playing, and the stockings hanging for one more round of small surprises. Gifting on New Year’s Day is simple and symbolic: small tokens that encourage, inspire, or delight as we turn the calendar to a new year. If your pounding head won’t accommodate more seasonal cheer, ease into the day with a warm drink in hand, then dive into those resolutions. For families, a small tradition like writing down goals or hopes for the year on slips of paper can make the day special. And for the ambitious, New Year’s Day can be a day for planning milestones and setting target metrics related to your resolutions. Shudder.
Ways to observe
(A) Low effort
Write down one thing you hope to achieve this year and tuck it in a Christmas stocking for safekeeping.
(B) Recommended
Go for a meditative walk in a nearby park or trail, reflecting on the past year and the possibilities of the year ahead.
(C) High effort
Host a New Year’s Day brunch. Serve symbolic foods like black-eyed peas, lentils, and fish, and invite friends or neighbors to share their resolutions over mimosas or coffee.
Inspiration
Let’s just say it: you’re going to need another Christmas tree. I didn’t mention it earlier because I didn’t want to frighten away the casual Christmas folk, but let’s be honest: anyone reading this book on January 1 is probably in too deep to turn back. Treedowning Day (our gentle farewell to ‘Tree One’) is still a full twelve days away, and we’ve entered a strange new season, the era of dwindling Christmas energy. The cookies are almost gone. The music’s getting quieter. The inflatable Santa is ragged from too many graveyard shifts. But not us. We mark this moment with resolve, and with a sprightly “Tree Two.”
Yuletide (12 Days of Christmas) It’s New Year’s Day, but it’s also the Octave of Christmas, which is practically Double Christmas. The trick is balance: enough reverence for fresh starts to sip your lemon water and jot down a few goals, but enough yuletide loyalty to keep the garland twinkling and maybe sneak a ribbon onto your gym bag. This is a day for subtle continuity. Santa’s sleigh has vanished, but the sonic boom of his departure still echoes through the living room. Make it a family day. In Japan, Oshogatsu traditions include osechi ryori (symbolic dishes like black beans for health and fish roe for prosperity) and first shrine visits to pray for blessings. In Latin America, red underwear and lentils make their annual appearance, inviting luck and abundance. And for many Christians, today is the Solemnity of Mary and the Octave of Christmas, holy reminders that the story isn’t over just because the calendar flipped.
Adornments
Watch
Wild Strawberries (1957)
Ingmar Bergman’s introspective Swedish masterpiece follows an aging professor on a day-long journey to receive an award. Along the road, memories and dreams invade the present, as he confronts the choices of his past.
Shall We Dance? (1996)
This warm Japanese comedy-drama introduces a buttoned-up businessman who, feeling the ache of midlife ennui, impulsively joins a ballroom dance class in secret. What follows is a graceful transformation: through waltzes and quicksteps, he discovers a deeper connection to those around him.
Listen
Turn! Turn! Turn! by The Byrds
A 1960s folk-rock classic that sets the wisdom of Ecclesiastes to jangling guitars and harmonies.
Read
The Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats
A classic children’s book (that adults secretly love too) about finding wonder in the everyday. Young Peter wakes to the season’s first snowfall and explores his neighborhood in a bright red snowsuit.
Eat
Vasilopita
A sweet, buttery New Year’s cake baked with a surprise hidden inside. Before it goes in the oven, a coin (wrapped for safety) is tucked into the batter. Once baked and cooled, the cake is dusted with sugar and often decorated with the year in nuts or icing.