Jan. 15 can't come fast enough for me. My first bone to pick with whoever thought up this month-long break thing is, fine, sure, all the students who live 3,000 miles away have ample time to go and visit their families. Ambitious students can take on externships.
Families can travel together.
When you get a day off from working during Winter Break, generally none of your old friends are free. You can spend many intellectually stimulating days like that, particularly during early January after your parents and little siblings have gone back to school, all alone in your house. If you live far enough away, it is possible that all the TV channels are different. You then will spend 45 minutes flipping through them, trying to remember what NBC is, but every time you flip by, they're in a commercial, so that by the time you find Rosie O'Donnell, it's over. Invariably, one person will be missing and the other 14 of you won't be able to agree on what to do, so you just end up watching the Thursday night lineup together and reminiscing about the stupid and wonderful things you did before you went away to school.