Christmas has come...and gone. For all the hype that this holiday received, it passed by like any other day. To be completely honest, if not for the exchanging of gifts with my family, I might not have noticed it at all. We call it "the most wonderful time of the year", but it really didn't feel that special.
I think the hype is the biggest problem. We talk up Christmas so much that an impossible standard develops in our minds, one which cannot be achieved in real life; a collective idea of what Christmas should be, rather than what it is. It really does not help matters that there is so much build-up to the day itself. Christmas music starts playing on the radio mid-November, and retailers are pushing their Christmas sales as soon as Halloween is over. It is a constant bombardment of holiday cheer, and you are expected to keep up the positive energy, no matter how badly things might be going in your life.
Another problem is a more personal one: I'm getting older, and many of the things I once so enjoyed about Christmas have lost their shine or disappeared completely. When I was young, Christmas meant two weeks off from school, television specials, giving and getting presents. This year, I got two days off from work. I've lost interest in most television Christmas specials, as they tend to be so formulaic that they all blend together. Trying to give good presents is stressful, and the presents I get now favor practicality over fun.
Sometimes, some of the extended family would get together, congregating at my grandparent's house. We are all older now, with responsibilities that make scheduling any kind of gathering a nightmare and a half. My grandparents are deceased.
So many things have lost their shine or faded away entirely, and yet the world still carries on, trying to make a bigger deal out of one day every time it comes around again.
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