Christmas carols. Twinkling lights. Frosted cookies. Heartwarming movies with cliché predictable endings. The holiday season brings all of the above and so much more. We get so wonderfully caught up in the spirit of this great yearly event, with all of its fantastic aspects. Those of us who celebrate are often asked to name our favorite parts of the season, traditions, events, the atmosphere. It seems that there is some part that we all hold dearer than the rest. For many it is receiving gifts, for fewer it is giving them. The religious treasure another concept altogether. For me personally, the best part about the holidays is the overwhelming and incomparable amount of love in the air, and the way it is portrayed in so many people at this time of year. We love each other more and we love each other harder.

I have spent a shameful amount of time watching holiday random acts of kindness videos and crying at the kind and loving nature of them. People who will spend hours decorating the house of another family, so that they might have a festive Christmas. Or supply plenty of gifts to a poor or recently devastated family, to give them the ability to celebrate and rejoice in the way that we all love to. My personal favorites are the videos where gifts are purchased for homeless people, and they all consist of them being asked what they want and nearly immediately being given whatever thing or things they requested. I sob inconsolably at these blatant displays of affection between people.

I have also always been a fan of gift giving, rather than receiving. Like most things, I enjoy the subtext that accompanies the event. When a gift is given at the holiday season I believe that it says something along the lines of, “I know you, I love you, and I want to show you just how much.” I have never been particularly good at expressing how I feel about people; my words never seem to make it eloquently enough from my heart to my mouth. In giving a gift I am able to say it all, without saying anything. I like to imagine that each person who gives something is expressing the same sentiment to their loved ones. Making declarations of their adoration by handing over prettily wrapped packages containing things that were painstakingly chosen. Christmas morning becomes an outpour of candid and heartfelt conversations with few words but great impact.

Maybe I am forcing my own inability to properly express emotions on the world, but it seems to me that until the third Friday of November, the world is just as incapable of showing how they feel as I am. People become more giving, they show their love in so many ways that typically go undone. Year after year, I love to see the version of society that loves to love each other. A world that is unafraid to show people just how much they care about them, or that is finally given the right opportunity to be able to. I will never tire of the cheesy YouTube videos, or the Hallmark movies, as long as it means that we keep on loving.