The holiday season is officially here. Storefronts are fully decked out in Christmas spirit, lights line the streets and, in many cases, the first snowflakes have hit the ground. With the decorations and the snowflakes and the list of potential presents, you begin to make your plans to go home.

Living in a big city, you experience bustle. Living in a big city during the holidays, you experience chaos - lines of Christmas shoppers and tourists. So, leaving the city to go home to a small town seems to be the perfect remedy to the busy big city life you live during the rest of months of the year. Though the idea is joyful, going home from a big city to a small town for the holidays can be a time of mixed emotions.

1. You always forget how small it actually is.

The minute you get back to your small town home, you'll be hit with the realization of how small it actually is. No matter how many times you go home, you'll never fully get used to the limited dining options and the way you can go for an hour run and end up back at your house again. There's only one or two coffee shops, and I doubt they know how to make your caramel lattes that you've gotten so used to.

2. You also forget how early things close.

There's no Chinese food at 1 AM or late-night shopping options.

3. Everyone knows each other.

They know each other from High School, from a sports team or just from being regulars at the same restaurant. (P.S.: everyone is a regular at the same restaurants).

4. Everyone knows you, too.

Depending on how long you stay or how much your family talks about you, everyone knows you too. They know where you go to school, what you intend to major in, and, depending on how much your grandmother gossips, the latest developments in your relationships.

5. You'll be set up with a family friend's single family members.

On the topic of relationships, someone will always have their son or daughter or their niece or nephew to set you up with. People your family knows (and you probably barely know) will ask you if you're single (the dreaded question) and begin to offer up their young and single family members as cures for your single-hood. It's especially awkward if their young, single family members are there.

6. Everyone says hi.

Even if they don't know each other (which, they probably do) they always say hello or smile at the least. This is something foreign to someone from the big city who knows the hidden rule of never making direct eye contact with strangers on the street.

7. There's actually peace and quiet at night.

Despite the awkward conversations with friends of family's and restaurant regulars, there's a certain serenity about the small town silence. At first, it's almost scary how quiet it is at night. There's no sirens blaring as you try to fall asleep. But after a couple of nights, you start to wonder how you'll ever go back to the noisy big city.