Just like for Christmas, liquor stores will be closed for 61 hours straight from New Year’s Eve to January 2, in observance of the state’s blue law backed by the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission.As previously reported by Local Profile, these types of laws can be tracked all the way back to ancient Rome — but in Texas, many additions and changes have been made over the years.“It happens a few times every few years, and it’s great for the employees to have two days off because otherwise we rarely get two days off in a row,” Charles Leard, owner of M&R Liquor in Amarillo, told KHOU11.For the first iteration of the campaign Alcohol for Change teamed up with alcohol behavior change expert Dr. Richard de Visser from the University of Sussex to survey the more than 4,000 participants to see the effects of having a month-long break on the booze.According to the nonprofit’s website, De Visser found that seven out of ten participants continued to drink less riskily than before, six months after the campaign had launched."