Halloween has come and gone, and you know what that means. Yep, almost overnight, everywhere you look is “Christmas this” and “Christmas that”. I, for one, absolutely love Christmas. I also love the often overlooked holiday of Thanksgiving. Both of these holidays symbolize warmth, spending time with family, and giving back. Even though I love both holidays, they are also really difficult to celebrate for me.
When I was about 12, my parents got a divorce. Before that, we always celebrated the holidays with both my relatives on my mom’s side, as well as my relatives on my dad’s side. The year they got divorced, it felt like I got hit by a truck. All of a sudden, my time during the holidays was put into a schedule of who I would be with and when. Instead of being able to actually enjoy the holidays, I was too worried and overwhelmed with making sure I was with the right parent at the right time.
A lot of my friends didn’t think of it as such a bad thing, considering I got two Thanksgivings and two Christmases. However, having two holidays isn’t all it’s hyped up to be. The holidays are a time for being together with your family; not half your family one day and half the other. Imagine waking up every year on Christmas as a child, and being able to open presents and take pictures with your parents, only for the next year to have to pick which parent you want to wake up to and open presents with.
Whenever my friends talk about their family coming home for the holidays, and all the relatives they get to see, I tend to get a bit blue. As an only child, it really makes my family seem small. Don’t get me wrong, I love spending the holidays with my tiny family; however, sometimes it really makes you wonder what it would be like if everyone could still celebrate together.
Overall, the holidays aren’t really for everyone. Like I said, I still really enjoy the holidays. However, some of us really don’t get to celebrate with everyone they wish they could celebrate with. That’s why the holidays really help us appreciate what we have, as well as what we had. They make you appreciate the little things, and help you to look back at the past and smile at what times used to be like.