There’s no denying Christmas is probably the most romantic holiday of all. Aside from the main themes of the festival, from celebrating the birth of Jesus to encouraging kindness to bringing families together, this lovely time features cupids as well as angels. Just ask the jewelry stores about December engagement ring sales....

Now what I like best about the holidays is that society lightens up a little on its normal rules of behavior. Between the mistletoe, the eggnog, and the darkness of the solstice, we all stop being so dang Victorian. Whether you’re Rudolph yearning for Clarice, or one of the misfit toys, or even the Abominable himself, the odds go way up of getting yourself a few Christmas kisses.

I happen to work in an office where the men outnumber the women. (Why do you think I took the job?) They are all sweet guys and real cuties to one degree or another. Remember the old show "Ally McBeal,” in which office romances were daily fare and every comment rife with sexual innuendo? Well, my office is the polar opposite of that. I’m not complaining about the fact that I don’t have to fear sexual harassment. But I do think humans are sexual beings, and we can’t repress that all the time.

Personally, I deal with it one day a year, the evening of the office Christmas party. And I’ll bet that’s true of a lot of you too.

At the end of the office Christmas party, I kiss nearly every guy I work with on the cheek. The women do not get such attentions from me (I think they don’t mind!). It’s just my way of acknowledging a fact we all try hard to ignore the rest of the year: that we are members of the opposite sex and may from time to time be attracted to one another. My kisses simply mean, "You’re a guy and I’m glad and I like you.” It’s a shame it takes Christmas to make this feasible, but I understand how life is.

When I met my husband I was 36 and he was 32. He had a gang of friends in their mid-twenties who liked to get together and have crazy parties. I’ve never been a big drinker but I am naturally uninhibited (which is probably why I can write erotic romance). I thought these parties were the most wholesome and therapeutic thing: a bunch of friends goofing around with semi-nudity, groping and kissing games that were for the pure hilarity of it. There was no jealousy, no competition, no danger--just surprisingly clean fun.

Those parties don’t happen anymore (much to all our regret), but I still believe it’s important to get a little mild, wholesome erotic adventure into daily life when you can. I can’t really call my office Christmas kisses erotic--well, okay, maybe in a couple of cases!--but they are in that realm of physical affection and male-female attraction that our culture sorely neglects. We are all so afraid of being aroused or committing arousal that we don’t even let ourselves think of each other as sexual beings.

And while Christmas time is hardly a fertility festival, it is a time when we let ourselves be a little more physical, more sentimental, more tenderhearted, and, happily, less responsible. Sure, the Monday after the party we all have to return to treating each other as coworkers and professionals. But I think we’re all the better for letting ourselves go a little Ally McBeal for one night.

There is apparently no strong religious or mythological reason why mistletoe is associated with Christmas. But it is associated with kissing and fertility. I think the hanging of mistletoe at Christmas may just be a tradition that encourages what we already feel: that this is a time to get just a little bit crazier with the affection.

I wish you a Christmas that along with peace, love, health and prosperity, also brings you a special kiss or two. And there are a few gentlemen I know who will get that wish for sure at a certain upcoming office party....

Diana Laurence is the author of the Soulful Sex anthologies published by Living Beyond Reality Press (www.livingbeyondreality.com). Visit her at www.dianalaurence.com, and read her blog at www.eroticawithsoul.blogspot.com. Download her free fiction from the LBR Press READ FREE Project at www.livingbeyondreality.com/readfree.html.