In The Season Of Giving: What Spoils The Supposedly Happy Holidays?
Holidays are meant to be simple. They are about family gatherings, appreciation of the small things in life, and spending them with the people you love. However, like pretty much anything else in our lives, things just had to get complicated. With the introduction of social media, it no longer became about happy, cozy days off, but more of a universal contest of who celebrated it more extravagantly.
Countless celebratory images make it to our Instagram feeds. There are these people who are traveling abroad to enjoy Christmas under a New York Christmas tree, and others who are partying in the most luxurious of clubs. What about the people who initially wanted to enjoy quality time with their family, or even wanted to spend it snuggled up in bed, binge-watching a Netflix show?
Such an inevitable competitive climate we find ourselves forced into, only makes matters stressful, and completely robs us out of the joy that holidays are supposed to bring. We get so bogged down with deciding how to plan our next vacations, how to beat last year’s celebrations, and how to one-up these novel traditions that society has imposed on us.
Given all the baffling thoughts one might find himself spiraled into during the holiday seasons, we should start reconsidering all the misconceptions that we have grown accustomed to over the years. This endless sense of inferiority, the need to brag, and every other unsavory element that comes as a result of such thinking have to stop.
You shouldn’t be up for judgment just because your means and ideal image of celebration are different. You shouldn’t feel obligated to celebrate in a different way or a different place. You shouldn’t feel less than any other person because you didn’t have the time, the means, or the sources to live up to what people call ideal or extravagant.
Because you know what? Holidays aren’t about luxury and traveling. It’s not an opportunity to brag and show off. It’s about genuineness and sincerity; it’s about enjoying the company of your loved ones, in any form that you find comfortable and satisfying.
