I have always been baffled by people who tell me that their favorite holiday is Christmas. I'm a Halloween gal myself-there's no other day in the year where running around with a fake blood-covered weapon is socially acceptable. Still, 9 times out of 10, people answer that their favorite holiday is Christmas. I used to be unconvinced by their insistence that the holiday was so important because of the time they could spend with their family-I thought it was a thinly veiled attempt to pretend that it wasn't all about the gifts. Only recently did I consider that I have been too quick to judge.
I have an extremely close family. When I say my family is "close," I don't simply mean that we like each other and get along well at family gatherings. I mean that we go beyond the definition of family-people tied together by blood and/or marriage-and go straight into friendship. How could friendship be a more important bond than blood, you ask? Because blood isn't chosen...friends are. We spend insane amounts of time together. My aunts, uncles, and cousins are some of the greatest friends I have. We don't give each other phone calls every few weeks to say hello, or send Hallmark cards every passing holiday. Those things aren't necessary. We don't go long enough without seeing each other for those things to BE necessary. But only recently have I begun to realize that most families ONLY get Christmastime to connect in person. The thought of that makes me incredibly sad. To me, those families are strangers. If you only really talk to someone once or twice a year, how can you really know them? I may be wrong, but I don't know how to look at it any other way. Christmas doesn't inspire any feelings in me, other than anxiety for how I'm going to buy all of those expected gifts. I don't feel a special sense of peace, a special sense of happiness about spending that time with my family. I have a sense of peace and happiness whenever I am with them, which is quite often.
I know I talk about how much I love my family on a regular basis, but I can't say it enough. I don't get tired of it and I don't apologize for it. I am so grateful to have them, and I feel truly sorry for those families who don't have the bond that we do. More than once, friends of mine have commented on how they wish their families could be as close as my family is. For their sakes, I wish that too.
