Jake Bailey: And to all a good night ...

Each day is called the present because it is a gift. Photo / Getty Images

Opinion

COMMENT: It is done.

The decorations begin to recede like a hairline, in dribs and drabs, thinning out, chipping away at the boundaries, until one day it is unexpectedly gone altogether. The tree will come down first, but the tinsel and its various flecks of sparkle will be found for many weeks to come, reminders of the piles of dishes that were.

The family will return to regularly scheduled contact, however sparse or ordered it may be. The recycling bin will suffer for weeks, and consequently the garage floor will be adorned with its own form of festive decor.

The children will soak up the summer. I still remember the summer of each and every year as a child, somehow as isolated events rather than the warm, fuzzy red and green smear that holiday seasons (plural) seem to have become now I'm older. Perhaps it is because a school year felt like a lifetime when I was young. I doubt it is because of the one drink I might now have with lunch on Christmas day.

New Year's resolutions will soon be made. Most will fail. All would have been attainable, had they been realistic, or just given more dedication.

The power of the New Year is not in the year ahead, but rather the year that has been. People are far better at looking behind than ahead, and although we are undoubtedly guilty of sugar-coating and rose-tinting and selective omission and failing of memory or logic, we are better at remembering the past than we ever will be of imagining our future.

Hopefully you're adorning your novelty 2019 glasses because you're ready to celebrate that you achieved something this year, because you've made yourself a better person, because you've earned it. You made your own reason to celebrate in 2018.

But before you cast back a year ago, remember these special days aren't the holder of the magic. They are as significant as the days that came before them, or come after them, and those that will come until they stop coming - which will probably be the most significant one of all.

What's changed in the past year? Is life better, or worse now? Is it different at all?

If it's the middle one, that's an issue. But if the answer to the latter one is no, that's a far bigger problem.

Life is like a computer. If it's not being used, it will not double check with you before it fades away into a black screen. Then you'll find it to be rendered unusable, until you switch it on again, which science hasn't quite figured out how to do yet.

Forget trying to set goals for the year ahead. Instead, try to make goals for each day of the year ahead. You have very little control over what will happen to you in the next 365 days as a collective, but far more over what will happen in the next 365 individual days. Adjustments each day will create far greater volume than the big shifts, and keep you on track.

Keep your eyes on the now, the present, and the presents.

Speaking of which, each day is called the present because it is a gift. Your in-laws are called in-laws because outlaws are wanted - or something along those lines, I wouldn't know myself.

Belated Merry Christmas, and a Happy New Year to you.