A New Slate

DEBORAH CROMBIE:  By today we should have our feet firmly planted in 2025. We've had Christmas and New Year's and today is Epiphany, which for many marks the end of the Christmas season. (Note: Today is also the day when most of the publishing world goes back to work!)

Our tree is down and the decorations are packed away in the attic for another year, something that always makes me a bit sad, and the house seems dark without the friendly twinkle of the lights on the tree and the mantle. Last year it occurred to me that I could remedy this by putting fairy lights in the big glass hurricanes that are our normal mantle adornment. (By May, with the lengthening evenings, I stopped replacing the batteries.) But there is also something a little exciting about having the Christmas clutter gone–it's like giving the house a clean slate for the new year.

Today also marks the first full spread in my 2025 planner, and that is a really visceral reminder that it's a new year!! It gives me a little jolt of that back-to-school/new start excitement. What possibilities will the new year bring?

Dear Reds, do you have some rituals for the start of a new year?

JENN McKINLAY: My January rituals are to hang the new calendar by my desk where I keep track of EVERYTHING. I used to use my phone but I like my wall calendar better. Also, the Hooligans and I go on a big hike. This year we’re looking at the Victory Stairs (340 steps built out of railroad ties) that go up a mountain on the west side and offer a terrific view. I like to start the year with a bird’s eye perspective. Oh, and I’ll probably clean the house top to bottom because I like to start the year tidy but I’m on deadline so it may be a Chinese New Year deep cleaning which will be Jan 29th. LOL.

RHYS BOWEN:  I’m always reluctant to put Christmas decorations away. I’ve been doing it bit by bit. The Christmas china after New Year. The holiday table stripped.  The carol singers on the mantelpiece and window sill have gone. Now it’s just the tree and the gnomes. My favorites. And  since it’s Epiphany today I’ll take down the rest tomorrow. 

I always start the new year by summarizing the last year in a special notebook then writing my intentions for the coming year. It’s sobering in past years to see which ones did not come to fruition   Like Jen. I hang a wall calendar and writes dates into my new agenda. The carpet needs cleaning after the hordes and dogs of the holiday period. Maybe time for a new carpet???

Writing wise Clare and I are about to submit the next Molly book, on schedule and I’ve almost finished the next Spyness. Now to decide which stand alone idea to tackle!

HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN: Calendars, I am so happy with calendars. However–I started my 2025 wall calendar a few months ago as it started to fill up…yikes. But it was truly fun to turn the page so January shows!   (and tucks the 2024 pages away in my “taxes” files.)

 I very much miss my little pocket-sized appointment diaries–I kept them, so happily, every year, and I have a whole stack of them, very Proustian. I used to carry them in my purse, but now–it’s all on the phone.  

Rituals? Ah..We have fairy lights around the patio, but those are year w=roiund. They do look nice in the snow!  I JUST TODAY finished the copy edits for the new book, yay, so that is certainly a perfect milestone!

And 44,000 words into 2026. That’s so incredible to think! Oh, rituals–I got out my snow boots!

HALLIE EPHRON: Spreadsheets! I start new pages for spreadsheets for my income and expenses and hope the latter doesn’t exceed the former. Clean the uneaten leftovers out of the fridge or pack them up and freeze them and try to remember to *label* them even though I’m sure I’ll remember what’s what. 

I like a physical datebook, too - I started a new one months ago but I just hung a 2025 wall calendar in the kitchen. Belts and suspenders.

My snow boots have been out for a week – we got 5 inches the day before Christmas. And my snow shovels and ice melt have been disinterred from the basement. On the other hand, I can feel the days getting longer again, even if it is in tiny increments.

JULIA SPENCER-FLEMING: Add me to the paper calendar club - it seems so old-fashioned but they’re so good for keeping important dates front and center AND for marking off streaks, if you do that. The, uh, days of writing or exercising streaks, not the nekkid run kind of our youths.

I’m not, however, taking down Christmas yet! Usually, everything goes back in the boxes for Epiphany, but as you may remember, this year Virginia stayed in The Hague for Christmas. She’s currently having a wonderful time in Vienna with a friend. She comes home later this month, and Spencer will be flying north from Norfolk to see her, so we decided to have a mini-Christmas for the family. I’ll let you know if it involves roasting another turkey. I’m watering the tree diligently and keeping my fingers crossed it won’t look like kindling by the time she gets here.

LUCY BURDETTE: No paper calendars or date books here–everything goes into my phone and computer. I am going to make a big new list today–the old one is buried under a stack of papers and all that has to go. Then I’ll be ready! I was also ready to take down the Xmas pillows and other things–except for the colored lights on our balcony. Those I will fight for until at least mid-January!

DEBS: How about it, Reddies? What makes you feel like you're getting a fresh start on the new year?