Together for the Holidays

I don’t know about you, but the end of the year and the holidays are two of my favorite times of the year. Being able to spend time with friends and family around this time always makes me happy and warms my soul, and I know I’m not alone. Some of my favorite ways to spend the holiday season are fulfilling my family’s holiday traditions. Getting a new pair of Christmas pajamas to wear on Christmas Day, getting a new ornament every year to put on the tree to mark the passing of time or to add sentiment to the tree, making Christmas cookies, decorating the house; all of these things we do yearly to celebrate the holidays and bring us closer together with those that we care about have been cultivated over the course of our lives to bring excitement and joy to the holiday season.

Christmas is celebrated worldwide by so many different cultures, but it is not the only holiday that we celebrate. In addition to Christmas, there is Hanukkah, Eid, Diwali (which just passed), and, here in the States, Thanksgiving which is just around the corner! I think, at least for me, Thanksgiving and Christmas are great just because we get to spend time with our friends and family, eat great food, and be thankful for everything we have and experienced over the past year. All of the hype and the prep work that goes into making the holidays extraordinary can be a lot of work, but it always pays off when you get to settle down and relax with your family after the fact. 

One of my favorite Christmas traditions is watching movies and eating Chinese food with my family after opening presents. We always give at least one movie per person for gifts, and then we spend the day after opening gifts watching movies, eating snacks, and hanging out with each other. I love having the day off to just chill with the people that I care about the most!

One of the other things I really like about the holidays is sending out a custom holiday card to my friends and family who may not be as close to me as others. Of course, I’ll still send them out to those who live close to me, but being able to give a year update to those who may live further away from me is also great! I am a huge lover of photos! No matter where I go, I’m always snapping pictures of the things I do or places I visit, just to be able to include them in a Christmas photo card. 

Whether you have a big family or a small one, or a family that is simply made up of close friends, the holidays bring people together in ways that are not usually possible throughout the rest of the year. The holidays provide an opportunity to reflect on the year that has passed, create memories with loved ones, and be thankful for what we have experienced over the year.