Booze for Sale on Monday After Christmas!

I’ve railed against Massachusetts’ arcane blue/Neo-prohibitionist laws in the past, from our lack of happy hours to the fact that many small restaurants are being hamstrung by the liquor license quota. The latest one I stumbled upon was that if Christmas fell on a Sunday, package stores were banned from opening the following Monday.

Now, I don’t know about you, but I’d expect the day after Christmas to be a banner day for liquor stores, with households needing to restock after emptying out the cabinets to fix egg nog and punch for holiday parties and big family dinners. (Also, you’ll probably need a bottle of wine if you’re braving the day-after-Christmas clearance sales or returning gifts at the mall.) Ostensibly, the point of the law was to give liquor store employees a “holiday” day off back in the days when all package stores were closed on Sundays. But good ole’ Governor Romney lifted the Sunday ban 8 years ago, so the law is just a holdover.

Thankfully, the legislature and governor came to their senses yesterday and approved a bill for liquor sales on the Mondays after Christmas! Given the state’s foot-dragging ways in repealing the blue laws, I’m going to call the move to sanity for what it is: a Christmas miracle.