I have just been informed that the Year of the Monkey starts on January 22, and that from a Feng Shui perspective, now is the time to prepare, in order to avoid bad luck in the new year. The children and I already went about the house on New Year's Eve, banging drumsticks on cookie tins in all the corners to chase away the old year and any evil spirits and what have you, but it appears there is more to be done. One thing that must be done is getting rid of the old to make way for the new, so we are each going to get rid of nine things a day for nine days, as per recommendations. I'm already anticipating feeling lighter. Then we are supposed to clean the house 'til it shines (theory may not exactly coincide with practice on this one, but we'll give it our best) and then perform a little series of exercises involving waving incense into all the corners of the house, ringing a little bell in all the corners, and something to do with salt - it reminds me of the 'footing' ceremonies people were talking about on another thread.

One post-Christmas tradition we have is for the kids to saw the Christmas tree into smallish chunks - then we toss all the chunks
into a metal barrel and have a bit of a bonfire one night.

It's definitely good to have a few small things planned, to avoid that old post-Christmas letdown.