Most employers close for xmas and new year's day, so even if you don't celebrate xmas, you're still on vacation. (After all, you've vacated the office.)

At lunch with the scientists yesterday (see my LJ post on same), Newton's birthday came up, but as I heard it, it's not firmly established what his birthday actually was.

Either way, you can make perfectly good arguments that the bard taught us how to live and love, while Newton taught us our place in the universe: equally important answers. This is a fine example of "when you're competing at this level, everyone's a champion".