How My Parents Stole Christmas... Kind of

So the holidays are obviously coming closer and everyone is talking about Christmas. My friends, teachers, tv adverts, shopping malls etc. I always found myself being overly excited for Christmas ever since I can remember. Even when nearing the end of November, I was already thinking about Christmas, my favorite holiday. It might be because my birthday is just the day before that, so a lot of fun things are happening at the time. Besides, who doesn't love sparkly Christmas trees and cookies??

But this year, something was different! I didn't feel it anymore. Whatever you call it... Christmas cheer... spirit... you know what I mean. I didn't even know my birthday was in less than two weeks until a friend pointed it out a few days back. So I pondered on why such a horrible thing would happen. How could I lose the love I had for my favorite time of the year?

And then it hit me. You see, no one in my family celebrates Christmas. My brother thinks it's stupid and my parents think it's overrated and a waste of time. Even growing up as a kid, I would always want a Christmas tree (I offered to pay for it myself) and they would always say no, you have better things to do than waste your money on presents and a tree. Now I can see what they meant, but when I was six years old I was just sorely disappointed that our house was the only one that didn't light up at night. But it didn't matter. Each year, I brought it up to my parents again. "Can we pleaseeeee have Christmas this year? I'll make all the presents and prepare everything!" But I always got a no. Sadly.

Our house on Christmas Eve

If you put it in perspective, I guess it does seem pretty childish and spoiled of me to have complained about such a trivial thing when, on the other side of the world, there are kids who don't even have families to celebrate any holiday with. That occurred to me too back then and I, a tiny little 4th grader at the time, organized a bunch of food/clothing/toy drives for underprivileged kids who lived near us. It was a blast.

So how come I'm not feeling it this year? I think as much as I love my parents, they killed Christmas for me. They really did. Yeah, it's not the worst thing in the world (obviously), but it was and still is a very special time of the year for me. It came to me that we never celebrate birthdays or holidays... I was the one who would diligently try to make a birthday cake for my parents (with my horrible baking abilities) and have it be dismissed for being a waste of ingredients and time.

My parents when I even say the word "Christmas"

I know they both had tough childhoods and they never really had a chance to do these things. Maybe that's why. But I find it unfair that their children (me and my brother) have to go through the same thing too. I'm just going to say it now. When I have kids, I am definitely going to celebrate Christmas to the best of my ability, even though I'm not feeling it now. Because it's not just about whether I like it, but it's more for everyone around you (family and friends... and yes, that was possibly the most cliche line ever).


Can anyone help me get back into holiday spirits? This is beginning to upset me.

Hope everyone has a good day! And let us all pray that it snows in Spain soon :)