This is an open letter to every person out there working hard to spread the Christmas spirit this year.

Dear blessedly cheerful, infectiously optimistic, and unrelentingly enthusiastic stranger;

Thank you for taking time out of your day, whether you realize it or not, to brighten mine. Whether it's because you decorated your house in glistening lights and colorful wreaths, constructed a snowman in your front yard, or wore an obscenely hideous yet at the same time visually pleasing ugly Christmas sweater outside the house, I want to personally thank you for putting in an effort to show your holiday spirit.

It really is a sight for sore eyes -- the sore eyes of a college student who has just been through the hell of finals week -- to see something so innocently joyful. You may be four months old, wearing a onesie with Santa Claus on it; you may be 38 with Rudolph decorations shamelessly adorning your minivan. You could be that 60-something-year-old I saw walking down the street yesterday, alongside her corgi, who was decked out with a miniature Christmas sweater. It doesn't matter what age you are, what your ethnicity is, what sex you are, or whether you're an animal, elf, or an abominable snowman. The holidays are what bring us all together. What counts is that you're spreading the holiday cheer and ultimately making this world a better place, one Christmas cookie at a time.

This is the holiday spirit that reminds me of starting my Christmas wishlist in August (yeah, I got that excited) when I was a kid, the spirit that makes me enjoy the entire month of December, no matter what kind of heinous final (definitely chemistry, not even trying to hide it) is thrown in my direction. I could get into the holiday spirit on my own by watching Christmas movies every night and drinking a possibly lethal amount of peppermint hot chocolate from Starbucks, but it really does make me extremely happy to see everybody getting into it as well. So thank you, random guy singing "Frosty the Snowman" at 9 p.m. last Wednesday in Target at the tops of his lungs, thank you to that couple dancing to "Jingle Balls" in the mall, thank you especially to that barista at Starbucks who dotted my friend's "i" in her name with a snowflake on her cup. Keep doing you and spreading that holiday cheer! I'm sure it brightens many other people's days besides mine.

Best regards,

Ryan Freeman.