Small family holidays, compared to big family holidays, are very different. It's a totally different experience on both sides. In my opinion, there are some good things about small family holidays, but there are also some bad things.

Pros:

1. It's really calm

There’s none of the frantically getting ready for your entire family to come over to your house. You don’t have to over-decorate, make fancy food, or make sure everything is perfect. You kind of just make some food that tastes good and don't worry about how it looks.

2. You don’t have to answer a ton of questions

Your immediate family probably already knows what is going on in your life, so you don’t have to answer the whole “How’s college?”, “What’s your major?”, “Do you have a boyfriend yet?” questions over and over again. This is probably the worst thing about holidays. I don't want to talk about how I suck at school and how I'm about to die from stress!

3. It's really short

When you have a ton of family at your house, it lasts forever. Everyone needs to catch up and spend time with each other, but it gets to the point where you’re tired of it and want to go back to bed. When you have a small family, it’ll last like an hour or two, then you can do whatever you want, like go Black Friday shopping, which is one of the most important parts of Thanksgiving.

4. There’s not as much fighting

When you have all of your family together, sometimes people can get a little angry with each other. This doesn’t happen as often when you are only with two or three other people. Sometimes my sister and I yell at each other, but that's nothing new. There's no major family drama when you hardly have any family.

Cons:

1. It's kind of lonely

Not having a big family during the holidays can be lonely. It is always more lively and fun when you have a ton of people you love around you.

2. It can be boring

There aren’t a ton of things open on Thanksgiving and Christmas, so if you don’t have a big family to hang out with, it can be boring because there’s literally nothing to do.

3. Everyone with a big family seems like they are having fun

All of my friends that have big families have so much fun during the holidays. They are always busy, always have someone to talk to, and are always having fun. Holidays are always a big deal when you have a big family.

I’ve always had a pretty small family. It was always just my sister, my dad, my mom, and I. We didn’t do anything with our extended family during the holidays because they all lived out of town. Holidays have always been really calm throughout my life, and sometimes I do like it, but sometimes I wish that I had a big family.

They always seem like they have so much fun and are really close to each other. For example, everyone on Parenthood always had fun during the holidays, but it was always crazy. I hope that I can have those kinds of holidays when I am older, because I've already experienced the small family ones.