As much fun as Christmas time is now, nothing compares to the magic of Christmas when you were a child. You never want to admit it to yourself that you are getting older and things just don't have that spark that they once did. Honestly, it's crazy how fast time goes, it seems like yesterday I was leaving cookies out for Santa.

When you're a kid all you wish for is to be older, but I never understood that. Getting older sucks. There's too much responsibility, too much homework, too much working. You never see the downsides of it though when you are kid. You just want to feel more grownup, like be able to drive, pay for things, or go out alone. Though when you are young it doesn't cross your mind that all the fun moments will eventually lose their overwhelming joy.

Christmas is my favorite holiday, partly because it always was. It's still a great time of the year but nothing will ever be as good as it once was. Let's paint a picture of all the things that just don't happen anymore.

There’s no more setting up cookies and milk for Santa to eat. There’s no more having trouble sleeping because of the anticipation for Santa’s arrival. There’s no more waking up your parents at such early hours of the morning trying to get them to come downstairs and see all the gifts waiting underneath the tree. There’s so much less excitement opening up the gifts you received because now that they aren’t from Santa, it’s just from your parents who should know you pretty well by now.

Just the basic thrill of all the little things, like setting up the Christmas lights, putting ornaments on the tree, listening to Christmas music, or playing in the snow has just diminished. Everything just seems like so much more of a hassle and instead of it being worth it in the past, now sometimes we decide it isn’t. You start to now understand why your parents think Christmas is more of a stressful time of year that it is a fun one.

In all honesty, one of the only reasons college students enjoy Christmas still is because we have off from school for a whole month. Nothing brings greater joy to a college student then having absolutely no school work to do or tests to study for. Since Christmas is right after finals, we can’t even get into the holiday spirit until it’s a week before Christmas and then we have to do all the shopping that we had no time for while school was going on.

I guess what I’m saying is, Christmas just sneaks up on us now. There’s no countdown of days until Christmas like there used to be. It’s just “Um it’s December 23^rd, Christmas is in 2 DAYS!!!!”

It’s not that Christmas isn’t fun anymore either, it’s just that there is less time to think about it, and I guess therefore less time to enjoy it. All the little parts about Christmas that used to make it special we just don’t have time and then can't appreciate them as much as we used to.

I miss the excitement that Christmas used to bring when I was a kid. Don’t get me wrong my Christmas every year is still filled with laughter, singing, playing games, and staying up until all hours of the night. Though it’s still a great day of the year, it’ll never be like it was. Maybe when we all have our own kids that same joy will be brought back, because being a child during Christmas is one of the best feelings in the world that you can never get back.