How are you spending Christmas this year — family or solo?
By Charlotte on
Christmas is next week and it got me thinking about how people choose to spend the holidays. For me, Christmas has always felt like something that’s meant to be shared with family.
My husband and I usually pack up the car and head to my parents’ place for a few days. It’s on my mom’s side of the family, so that means a full house aunts, uncles, cousins, kids running around, way too much food, and at least one heated conversation about football or politics. It’s loud, a little chaotic, and honestly exhausting… but it’s also comforting in a way that’s hard to explain.
There’s something about waking up in your childhood home, drinking coffee in the kitchen you grew up in, helping with Christmas dinner, and catching up with relatives you only see once or twice a year that makes it feel like Christmas actually happened. Even the awkward moments somehow become part of the tradition.
I know not everyone has family nearby, and for some people the holidays are complicated or even lonely. No judgment at all, everyone’s situation is different. But for me, being with family, even with all the messiness that comes with it, is what makes the season feel real.