I Need a Little Holiday Cheer

I took the day off today to start and hoped to finish all my Christmas shopping. As I’ve mentioned before I’m a bit of a Scrooge. I truly don’t hate Christmas and I don’t hate giving people presents; I just don’t get super excited during this time of year. I don’t feel the holiday cheer and don’t enjoy decorating my place up for the Christmas spirit. I have never seen It’s a Wonderful Life or Miracle on 34th Street, and really don’t care to see either one.

Christmas was never a huge event in my family. We don’t celebrate it for religious purposes. My parents are Buddhists and only celebrated Christmas for the kids. They never told my brother and I about Santa Claus. All of our presents came from Mom and Dad. I never knew who the jolly guy was with the rosy cheeks. The first time I had my picture taken with him, I freaked out cause I had no idea why I was sitting on some random guy’s lap.

We did have a tree growing up, and my while my family did not decorate the outside of the house, my Mom did decorate the inside. As a little kid, I loved Christmas. It was my favorite time of the year. Not only were there presents, but I also had winter break, which was awesome. But as I got older and my brother stopped coming home for Christmas, the fun and excitement of that time gradually began to fade. It became another day in our household. I can’t remember the last time we had a Christmas tree in the house.

There will be some years, where the holiday spirit hits me, and I enjoy this time of year. I mean really enjoy. I’ll get a tree for the house and decorate it and really get into the season. But its been awhile since I’ve felt it. This year especially I could care less for Christmas. I’m just not feeling it this year. Try as I might, its just another stress on top of everything else I have to do.

Usually I love buying presents for my family and friends. And I really put a lot of thought into what I’m going to get them because I really want them to like the gift. But today as I’m walking around the mall I just couldn’t find anything that I liked or thought they would like. It felt more like a chore than any real pleasure of finding presents for people. So after an hour I just gave up and figured I would do it another day when I was in a better mood.

I can’t seem to pull myself out of this Scrooge funk and really would like to enjoy this holiday season.