No, I haven’t completely lost it. I realise that it’s February and that the crossover from 2016 to 2017 took place almost five weeks ago. But a monthly New Year’s Eve is a tradition that MrElaineous and I instituted last year and, after inadvertently allowing it to fall by the wayside, we are reviving it again this weekend.
Why? A few years ago I read the book How to do Everything and Be Happy, and the author writes about booking a monthly Boxing Day in his diary. He had always enjoyed this day after Christmas, where he didn’t have the same pressures as the 25th and could just potter about as he saw fit: maybe read a book, or go for a walk, or do a crossword. There were no plans or schedules, just being. He found it a bit silly that he looked forward to this one day all year, and realised it was possible to recreate it in his own time, building in the breathing space necessary to rest and recharge.
For us, New Year’s Eve is the one holiday we yearned for each year: it involves a collection of films, a pile of junk food, and enjoying them both throughout the course of the day and evening. As my life has gotten increasingly more regimented, from back-to-back blocks of meetings in my Outlook calendar at work, to figuring out when to fit multiple external projects into a decreasing amount of free time, this unscheduled 24 hours begins to look like a monthly oasis.
So I wish you a very happy New Year … and all the best in pursuing your own monthly holiday.
Explore the UK from wherever you are! Get notified when each new blog post is published and receive a free eBook as a bonus:
