The holiday season is known for bringing magic to the world because of various things. Children get excited because there are presents involved with Christmas. Some of us get excited for the amount of food that Thanksgiving brings even though there is a dark side to the holiday. I am not excited for the holidays this year because as I get older, I see more and more commercialism. The holiday themed commercials use to mark the start of the holidays for me but now working in theme parks. Summer marks the start of Christmas prep work for the public and it makes me sick. I am not excited to put up Thanksgiving and Christmas decor this year in my house and that is not okay.
Commercialism for the holidays is not cool. I understand that businesses need a way to make money but the pressure to find the perfect gift can cause your mental health to take a turn for the worse. When you are a student, a wife and a worker, the holidays are your own personal hell. Retail and the entertainment industry are the worse before Christmas Eve and Day are the worse during the Holiday season. Customers are not always full of cheer and holiday spirit. For those who are, thank you because we live for you guys during the holidays.
I understand that during different parts of your life that you are going to experience different emotions during different parts of the year but these past 5 years my mental health goes through more negative cycles during the Holidays. I am thankful for those who try to stick to the holiday spirit but its not the same. The holidays change as we get older and I feel like as a society it has gotten worse. As a child, I wanted the expensive gifts that kids want nowadays but now I just want a book with a nice note written in it. Priorities change and so do people. I don't want people stressing over what to get me or to stress over getting me anything.
The pressure that the holidays bring now are damaging more and more people's health both mentally and physically. Back then, candy wasn't as readily available as it is now and there was more focus on family time. Now, there are kids having a lot of candy while playing on their electronics and other family members aren't as focused on each other. The building blocks of relationships are being lost to the commercialism of the holidays. The stress of getting a person that perfect gift is causing a lot of unnecessary mental health problems that don't need to be there. I should be thinking about the amount of time I may be able to spend with my family if I am not working on making other families happy. Thinking about these things make me not excited for the holidays and has me longing for the day when all of this is over.
