Describe the day after Christmas in your home. How do you relate to the feelings that Thiessen sings about?
How would you describe the overall tone of the song? What lines indicate support this? How does the music support or refute that tone?
What is Thiessen saying about the world’s attitude on Christmas versus the other 364 days a year?
How is this contrasted with the start of the Christmas season? Do you think that this is a pitfall in he amount of time we spend celebrating and leading up to December 25th? Why or why not?
Which do you find harder to transition from - endings or beginnings? Explain. How does this impact the way you think about Christmas and New Year’s Day?
Would this song hit differently if we didn’t live in California? Why or why not?
Response
The day after Christmas was just another day during the break for me. This year, our family did not emphasize on decorating and building up the holiday spirit, so the transition was not too dramatic to what Thiessen describes.
The overall tone of the song is rather downcast and depressing, but also has specs of optimism. Thiessen leverages the repetition of the lines “Oh, no more lights glistening, no more carols to sing”, emphasizes the sadness of Christmas going by. Thiessen then goes on to reminisce on the Days of Christmas with the lines, “But just for one day we all came together, We showed the whole world that we know how to love”. Finally, some specs of hope and optimism show in the lines where he says that “Christmas, it makes way for spring”, as if the days of spring will be better.
Thiessen seems to build this idea by contrasting normal days with Christmas, giving the effect that every other day is rather uninteresting - that only during Christmas is the time for joy.
This is contrasted to the days after Christmas day as there tends to be a lot of hype surrounding the days that build up to Christmas, but after Christmas all of the hype seems to have gone. I personally don’t think that this is necessarily a pitfall for everyone, but can certainly be for certain people, as the amount of work and time it takes to setup Christmas decorations may seem pointless if one’s Christmas wasn’t too good
I find it harder to transition to beginnings. I personally embrace the idea that if what I have works, there isn’t too much need to move forward. However, it is important to recognize times where it is necessary to move on, and while the transition may at times be painful, it provides for many learning opportunities (which is demonstrated many times in programming). This idea doesn’t really stick too much with me for the holidays specifically though, as these holidays don’t really have too much purpose to me other than socializing and interacting with other people.
I would say no, as I believe that the Christmas and holiday spirit has pretty much embedded itself into the American culture. As a result, wherever you go in America, people are probably experiencing things similar to what you would.