Christmas: you either love it or you hate it
In my experience, Christmas (if you celebrate it) is one of those things that you either love or you hate. Personally, I聽love it.聽I鈥檓 deeply passionate about all things Christmas: the food, the movies, the decorations (consumerism wins again), and the time spent with friends and family. It鈥檚 something that I look forward to every year, and when it鈥檚 over, I fall into a brief state of depression. That鈥檚 how much I love Christmas.
Honestly, I never used to understand how you could possible dislike Christmas. How could you feel anything less than intense excitement at the thought of waking up on Christmas morning? To some extent, I still don鈥檛, but the older I鈥檝e gotten, the more I鈥檝e understood that Christmas, for all its joys, can be hard. Buying gifts can be expensive, working Christmas hours can be exhausting (hello to my fellow retail workers), and鈥攆or people either without a family or with a difficult relationship with their family鈥攊t can be a lonely reminder of past trauma.
I鈥檓 now at a point where I appreciate that Christmas is something that I鈥檓 lucky to view with anticipation rather than dread. It鈥檚 not something that we鈥檙e all programmed to enjoy. It鈥檚 something that is learned and which depends heavily on personal circumstance.
So, this Christmas, I鈥檓 thinking about all of the people out there who, for whatever reason, don鈥檛 feel good about the upcoming season. Let鈥檚 make sure that we prioritise kindness and compassion for those who need it the most.