It's the season of joy, the season of giving, of rejoicing, of reflection, of shopping.

And according to at least a few songwriters and many movie makers, a season of love and romance.

It's the Christmas season.

Many of us agree it's the most wonderful time of the year, but not quite as many of us

agree on exactly how much time we're talking about. For a little more than a century, the American

Christmas season has begun the day after Thanksgiving. The ending is somewhat negotiable. Some

of us are ready to pack it in the day after Christmas itself, others wait until New Year's Day.

A small minority wait even longer. On average, though, we're talking about a Christmas season

that lasts for four to five weeks out of the year. But in the last few decades, Christmas

items appear on store shelves in October, or even earlier. Those made-for-TV romances start

pouring out before Halloween.

The season is getting longer. Or, more specifically, it's starting earlier. Not everyone's

on board, of course, and this creates some ambiguity. When does the season begin? When does it

end? We can't say for sure, only that it's getting longer and starting

earlier. Which is the very opposite of the way that people handled this same question millennia ago.

Our Christmas celebrating four bears also wanted an extended Christmas season, but whereas we

celebrate the season leading up to Christmas, their season began on Christmas.

And while we observe a season of four, five, six weeks or more, depending on whom you ask,

they were much more precise. The season would last 12 days. Those famous 12 days of Christmas

that today we merely sing about rather than observe or even understand what they are.

Why 12 days?

Why not more?

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