In the United States, I always felt like Christmas Day was the moment the world would finally explode from the built-up frenzy of pre-holiday hysteria. Weeks of anticipation, coordinated outfits, school concerts, office parties, shipping deadlines, sugar, lights, and questionable inflatable lawn decorations all seemed to gather force until there was nowhere left for the energy to go. Here in France, it is a bit different. The great national acceleration does not happen in Dec