Afterglow

Hear the silence? That's the sound of After-the-Holidays: Absence of car horns and traffic jams. Company now gone. The blessedly inactive calculator. Children soon to be back in school. The end of squawking, dancing Santas at the mall and frantic shoppers vying for position.

Unfortunately, it's also the sound of missing Christmas carols, gone from the airwaves until next year. Silenced silver bells. Fading echoes of church cantatas and carillons and singing children. Sighs and lingering...