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Three days after Christmas I was chatting with an acquaintance who said rather huffily "I took all my Christmas decorations down yesterday. It's all put away. I couldn't stand it!"
My jaw dropped. In a way, I understood. Looking around the living room ... and the entire first floor, really ... I, too, had been briefly seized by the idea that I needed to clean it all up. But that madness passed. Even if I had managed to grab every last scrap of wrapping paper off the floor, I would have been reluctant to touch the decorations themselves. The shimmering bulbs and tiny lights just made everything feel a little brighter and more cozy.
(And with the gray, gray, muddy, rainy several days we had around Christmas, that was much-needed).
I told her I was setting my sights on having everything down by mid-January. "But even once I start, it's going to take a few days," I said. I'm still marveling at how she managed to do everything so quickly, though she did admit that "some of the outdoor stuff is still up."
Actually, it's not just how, but WHY that is baffling to me. Those cozy little lights are a comfort for more than just a day or two after Christmas. I know people who keep them up for weeks just so they can fend off the winter blahs a little longer.
To me, if something so simple can make a difference on that front, let the lights stay up until May.
But if Christmas lights are more of an irritant than help; or if seasonal affective disorder is a very real problem for you, there are other ways to battle the gloom.
Seasonal affective disorder is a significant mental health concern. It is a recurring form of depression that pops up in the winter for approximately 5% of the population.
"There are connections between light-detecting, brightness-detecting cells in the eye and parts of the brain that control the body's clock and also parts of the brain that control our emotions and our hormones," Dr. Paul Desan, the director of the Winter Depression Research Clinic at the Yale School of Medicine, told PBS NewsHour.
That means for those truly affected by the disorder, light is part of the solution -- but the lightboxes are much brighter than what I'm talking about with my string of Christmas bulbs.
Lightboxes, medication and supplements, exercise and outdoor activity, and talk therapy can all improve a person's mental health and give them the support they need to get through these sunlight-starved months.
If you know someone who struggles during the winter, rest assured what they are experiencing is real. Have a little empathy if you notice someone is just not themselves.
Desan told PBS that while 5% of people may find themselves fully in the grip of SAD, there are 10% to 15% of people who will exhibit a symptom or two of the disorder during the winter.
So think twice before you ask why a person has or hasn't done something on a timeline that seems unusual to you.
Remember that while some winter-lovers are thriving in the cooler temperatures and (for them) increased opportunity for outdoor exercise, others are just slogging through, hoping for an early spring.