What has become of the holidays?

Today, I was on Facebook reading other people’s pages and wondering how much of what I was reading was true and how much was a ploy for sympathy or attention. I looked at some pictures of friends and their kids and read countless posts complaining about everything from traffic to deadbeat dads. What actually caught my attention was something that wasn’t there, something that I had gotten used to seeing around this time of year and had grown to love to hate. Where was all of the blind, crippled, crazy holiday optimism? Where were all of the ridiculous Halloween pictures of three year old dressed as ladybugs and pumpkins? Normally, by this time most people would be talking about going to visit family for Thanksgiving and some people would already be working out their Christmas plans. I found myself torn between appreciation for that fact that I don’t have to see how nice Little Billy looked in his Power Ranger costume and the feeling that the world had changed.

The holiday season has changed from a time to be with family members that you can’t really stand and give thanks for the fact that your many hardships didn’t kill you to a time to isolate yourself and gain even more distance from humanity. Why no pictures of Little Billy, because half of the most people have stopped bothering to go trick or treating with their kids. Why no Thanksgiving and Christmas plans with the family, because with the divorce rate being what it is most people don’t even have a family left to go home to.

I used to dread the holidays because it was the only time of the year that I felt nothing was good enough. The job I worked at was sub-par, someone’s relationship status was always better, and hell even the kids became a competition. Seeing family for the holidays can be like crossing the interstate on foot and just trying not to get hit. Even with all of that, the holidays always felt like a time to connect with family and even people that you didn’t know. Hearing stories about another person’s Christmas or Thanksgiving disaster made us all feel a little bit better about our own family. I enjoyed comparing how much candy I got from trick or treat with other people and making fun of how stupid everyone else’s costume was (because whatever I had on had to be cool).

Now, look I’m not saying that I will ever be a holiday fanatic but what I am saying is for all of the anxiety, inconvenience and depression that the holidays bring, they also bring us together. Maybe your family does tap dance on your last, hanging nerve and maybe it is easier to just spend the holidays playing video games, watching YouTube and binge eating but what are high calorie foods and mindless entertainment without the people you love to share it with.