December 26: The Most Honest Day of the Year

Take advantage of the quiet after the noise, before the pressure starts again

Dec 26, 2025

December 26 has always felt like the most honest day of the year to me. The gifts have been opened. The messages have been sent. The meals have been cooked and eaten. The obligations that came with Christmas Day are officially done. There’s nothing left to perform, no one left to impress, no schedule insisting that you show up in a particular way. Once the pressure is gone, I usually enjoy the leftovers on “Boxing Day” more than the actual Christmas dinner. We somehow find space, and for many of us, that’s unfamiliar territory.

It’s often the first moment all year where the background noise drops enough that I can actually hear myself think. Not in a “I have everything figured out” kind of way, but in a quieter, more honest way. The kind where thoughts surface that don’t usually get airtime during a busy year, let alone in the busy weeks leading up to the holiday season. But today, it’s quiet.

“Almost everything will work again if you unplug it for a few minutes, including you.”

Tweede kerstdag and the lost art of a second pause

Growing up in the Netherlands, December 26 wasn’t Boxing Day. It was (and to me, still is) tweede kerstdag, literally the second Christmas Day.1 It’s not a day for shopping or chasing deals, but another day to stay inside the holiday, without needing to add anything to it.

Somehow, North America has replaced that second pause with more fake urgency. A rush to buy everything we didn’t get. A rush to turn stillness into productivity. A rush to fill the quiet as fast as possible, as if silence itself is something to fix. I think we’ve got it all wrong.

But this second Christmas day isn’t empty. It’s open. And openness can feel uncomfortable when you’re not used to sitting with it. It invites reflection without demanding answers. It creates room for questions that don’t need to be solved right away, or maybe ever. Doing that for two days in a row can feel a little scary, maybe?

Before the resolutions kick in

This is the moment before the New Year pressure machine comes roaring back online. Before January starts whispering, or shouting, about reinvention, discipline, and optimization. Before the internet (and your local gym) starts telling you who you should become and how fast you should get there. More about that next week.

I’ve learned that this in-between space matters more than the resolutions themselves. It’s the quiet period when Christmas is done but the New Year hasn’t started yet. Sometimes the only thing that’s needed is a pause long enough to notice where you actually are. Today, the world really needs a second Christmas Day, maybe more than ever.

I’m increasingly okay with the idea that some questions aren’t meant to be answered. They’re meant to be carried. Turned over in your hands. Looked at from different angles. Considered, not answered. This day, more than any, provides that space.

That realization has shown up in unexpected places for me. In travel. In relationships. In work. In the small, everyday choices that shape a life more than the big, dramatic ones ever could.

Travel isn’t the point, but it helps

Travel didn’t solve anything for me this year. Despite my travel books and courses, I hate to admit it: It never really does. That was never the point. What travel did do was to continue to create space. Space away from routines, assumptions, and familiar noise. Space to see patterns that are harder to spot when you’re embedded in them.2

Travel has a way of stripping things down. It reminds me that meaning isn’t tied to scale or luxury. Fine dining can be wonderful, but so can a food court. A cruise can be comfortable and memorable, and so can sleeping in a tent. I’ve had just as much joy in both.

The question of “which is better” isn’t the point. The grass is always greener on the other side. Maybe that’s not a question that needs an answer at all. Maybe it’s enough to notice what you enjoy, what grounds you, and what makes you feel more like yourself in any given moment.

It’s okay to not have a definitive identity or preference. One day I can be one thing, and the next day something else. That flexibility feels more honest than forcing coherence where it doesn’t naturally exist.

The year isn’t over yet

December 26 through December 31 often gets treated as a write-off. As dead days: time to kill before the arbitrary calendar flips and everything magically resets and you’ll become the “new you” literally overnight. Pardon the sarcasm.

These dead days are very much alive and still belong to this year in your life. Don’t write them off. They still shape how it ends, and quietly, how the next one begins. Endings and beginnings are closer than we think, especially if you’ve ever crossed time zones, borders, or major life transitions. There’s always overlap. There’s always a threshold moment where you’re no longer fully in one place, but not yet in the next. Maybe, there’s also magic there.

So here’s a simple question worth sitting with over the next few days. How are you going to spend this time in a way that lets you end the year on a high note, not a rushed one?

My wish for the coming year, in a very complicated world, comes from a sentiment which is loosely inspired by Mark Twain3:

“I am convinced that people can shrink prejudice through global travel. We can aspire to a society where all individuals can live together in harmony. We can be free as we are independent.”

Maybe that freedom starts with curiosity. Maybe it starts with rest. Maybe it starts with choosing to add something new, instead of endlessly fixing what’s already there.

Get Into Action: Add Something New

This quiet stretch, before the year officially ends, is one of the best moments to begin something meaningful. Momentum doesn’t come from waiting for January or writing resolutions. So if this in-between week is stirring something for you, there are a few gentle ways to work with that energy instead of pushing against it.

If writing has been calling you, Write a Book in a Week exists for exactly this kind of moment. Very few people ever finish writing a book. Starting now, while the year is still quiet, gives those ideas room to become something real.
If travel is where your mind keeps wandering, Travel Revolution is about planting seeds long before you pack a bag. Better travel rarely happens by accident. It starts with learning how to think differently about timing, opportunities, and access, often months in advance, when everyone else is distracted.
And if what you’re craving is a broader reset, my Break Free Xperience is designed to help you step back and look at how all the pieces fit together. Not to reinvent yourself, but to reconnect with what actually matters and build from there.

And if none of that feels right right now, that’s okay too. You can always pick up a book, one of mine or someone else’s, and spend a few quiet hours reading. Sometimes the most meaningful action is simply giving yourself space to do nothing, and to think without an agenda. I’m still learning that skill myself.

The year isn’t over yet. There’s still time to start something new, in a way that feels meaningful to you.

Once again, from my corner of the world to yours: Merry Second Christmas Day to you. 🎄

View my holiday card