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Liverpool Echo
Liverpool Echo
Entertainment
Jess Flaherty

What's the period between Christmas and New Year actually called?

Christmas is over for one more year and the New Year countdown is officially on - but what's this "weird" in-between period called?

Christmas Day usually has the vast majority of people planning and preparing for weeks and months in advance, with presents to buy and wrap, decorations to arrange and put up, and food to snap up and store in time for December 25.

Despite being just one day, it's an annual tradition beloved by billions of people across the world, regardless of their religious affiliation, and many are keen to make the most of the festive period.

READ MORE: Old Wirral taxi office turned dessert shop has people queuing out the door

Now it's done and dusted, we're in that in-between stage where nobody is ever quite sure what day it is until New Year's Eve rolls around. Shops, restaurants and other businesses haven't quite returned to normal operating hours, there's still Christmas films being shown on television and there's no shortage of cheese boards and snack foods on the go.

While there's no official name for this period, it is often dubbed 'Crimbo Limbo', because it's an uncertain and undetermined time, or 'Twixmas'. Twixmas is the slightly more formal term used to describe the days between Christmas and New Year, from December 27 until December 30.

The word is a portmanteau, blending an old-fashioned version of the word 'between' - 'betwixt', which means the same thing as between - and 'Christmas' to get 'Twixmas'.

Depending on your work and family commitments, this is a time to indulge in some much needed rest and relaxation without the pressure of Christmas Day looming. Let us know in the comments section below what you're getting up to during 'Twixmas'.

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