Ready or Not – Here Come Those Family Holidays
I have a good friend who dreads the holiday season, saying: “The holidays are upon my a##.” But it’s here anyway with all those upcoming expectations of Norman-Rockwell-print warm, loving, accepting images of Thanksgivings, Hanukkahs, and Christmas celebrations where families gather together to try to recreate them. They’re usually laden with consumer goods that buy perfect gatherings along with national myths to “explain” why we’re supposed to be joyful about it all. Yet, the reality is that many are “celebrating” with depression and disappointment. Even suicide rates increase this time of year. I wonder how many people actually experience the joy they expect, rather than find these to be anniversaries of exhausting, dysfunctional family pasts. It’s no wonder that streaming movies such as National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation , Home for the Holiday, or even the Home Alone series now constitute holiday traditions. Maybe most of us long for pasts that today’s nostalgia has us believin