Eat, Drink, and Be Merry! No, Really.
The pleasures that we indulge in at Christmas shouldn’t only be <em>guilty</em> pleasures.
Christmas, they say, is the most wonderful time of the year. We take time off of work, gather with friends, and indulge in eating, drinking, music, and merriment. For a brief period, the pleasures we ration through the rest of the year take center stage.
And then, each January, the newspapers fill up with advice on dieting, teetotalism, and the return to work. The prospect of this chilly month, when the guests are gone, the party is over, and soon-to-be-breached resolutions take sway, can even cast its pall over the holidays, our preemptive guilt eating away at our enjoyment: “I’ll regret this extra slice of pie come the New Year,” we tell ourselves. It’s as though the pleasures that we indulge in at Christmas can only ever bepleasures.
