The View of "the end"

So it's over. Christmas, I mean. The packages have been torn open, the gifts examined, the holiday ham eaten, the eggnog all gone. Oh sure, the stores will be open at 5 or 6am tomorrow morning waiting for all of those returned items that "just weren't quite right," and for the spending of all those gift cards bought when one just couldn't find that "quite right" gift.
This whole Christmas season had a different feel for me this year. That was likely due to fact that I haven't worked since the end of September so I saw the holidays coming down full bore the minute Halloween was over with. Holiday time starts November 1st and ends abruptly at 12:01am December 26th. The all-Christmas-music-all-the-time radio stations stop. Which makes no sense to me because the week between Christmas and New Years is really the week of the holidays so why put an end to the music just because Christmas is over? It's the holidays remember, not just a holiday. New Year's is coming and I think it's about time it got its due as a part of the official holiday season. I mean really, we don't celebrate any two holidays closer together on the calendar than that whole President's Day/Washington's Birthday/Lincoln's Birthday mess someone decided was a good idea in February. I beg of you: include New Years in your holiday wishes! Play Christmas carols into the new year! Let New Years shine in the glow of the leftovers of Christmas. This is the holiday week after all. This is the holiday week we waited for all fall during the school year. Christmas and New Years go together like apples and oranges, and Whoopi Goldberg and Barbara Walters from The View. Let's not let it all be overwith in one single day. Can't we hold on to the holidays for just seven days more and carry it through to New Years Day?
Can't we enjoy the holiday view for just a few more days? By mid-January, it will be like the whole thing never even happened anyway, so I say we dig in and hold onto these precious seven days as if our happiness depended on it.
Enjoy.