My Holidays

The end of the year holidays is what people are always looking forward to. The traditional thing for me to do for Christmas and New Year’s is to spend time with my family, receive presents, and celebrate. Unfortunately, I was disappointed this year since I didn’t have enough money to buy presents, and I didn’t spend the holidays with my family.


Holidays. I sometimes forget what their real meaning is. To me Christmas is the holiday of giving and receiving. Ever since I was a little girl, our family tradition was to stay up very late on Christmas Eve and celebrate with our family. We would the open our gifts at midnight. It seems that every year that passes by, our family tradition slowly fades away. This year, my family did not celebrate Christmas or New Year’s. My parents did not feel the spirit of Christmas because they did not have the money. I was not working; therefore, I was not able to buy my family any presents either. It was important for me to have money to buy presents because I wanted to bring my old family tradition back. I wanted to be able to see my little brother’s happy faces when they would open their gifts again, but unfortunately this did not happen. The same goes for New Year’s, my family did not do our tradition of counting down the last seconds to the New Year. Instead, my family just saw the holidays as an ordinary day. The holidays in my family were dead. This is the most disappointing end of the New Years holidays that my family has ever experienced. I am not looking forward to next year’s holiday.


What exactly did I do for Christmas and New Year’s? I spent it with my boyfriends’ family. It is sad to say that my family did not celebrate the holidays; therefore, I ended up spending them with him and his family. I loved the fact that my boyfriends’ family had a big party for Christmas and New Year’s, but somehow I felt out of place. I did not feel comfortable knowing that I was celebrating and meanwhile my family was just at home watching movies. I was disappointed because the traditional thing to do for the holidays was to spend it with my family and that did not happen. Even though I was disappointed, I could not ruin the night so I celebrated. I met my boyfriend’s family and that was the highlight of the evening. At least I was not alone for the holidays. I hope that next year my holidays are not the same as the year of 2007.


When I look back at how my holidays went, I feel selfish. So many people do not even have a chance to know what a Christmas and New Year’s is like. Instead, I am thankful that I have friends and family that love me. I thank God that he has put a roof over my head. I also thank God for providing a meal to me everyday. The real meaning of the end of the year holidays is not about receiving gifts, but about being thankful that we made it through another year. People have high expectations of what Christmas and New Years should be like, that is, in the end, wrong. Things do not always go according to plans. I now realize that the word “perfect” does not exist and I should not try to make my holidays perfect. Next year I hope I will spend the holidays with my family.