While it may be the most wonderful time of the year with the holidays and winter break around the corner, there are still things that students dread about the holiday season. From the tacky decorations to weird traditions that come along with these winter celebrations, there is always something people can find that you hate about the holidays. These are what a few students of SPFHS don’t like about the impending, jolly pit they are all about to fall into.
Along with celebrating with family and friends, we also get a winter break as almost everyone knows. But sometimes, especially this year with our winter break only being one week, people just need more time to enjoy the holidays.
“I think we should have a longer break,” sophomore Brian Rosenberger said. “Everyone needs time off from school and it wouldn’t hurt to take a few days away from summer break and add them to winter break because those few days mean a lot more on a smaller break.”
From Nov. 1, Christmas is everywhere; commercials promoting holiday sales and stores rife with garlands and wreaths come out of the woodworks. Christmas is the most profitable and competitive time for major companies. Companies using Christmas to sell their products. But why can’t we show Hanukkah and Kwanzaa some love too?
“There’s too much Christmas advertisement and not enough Hanukkah,” senior Sam Venick said. “I get that the majority of people celebrate Christmas, but it would be nice to maybe see a Hanukkah commercial every once and awhile.”
Some students don’t enjoy the obligation of enjoying the holiday season as a whole while other people can’t have the same gifts or experiences as others get.
“I hate that we’re all socially inclined to enjoy the holiday season,” junior Mikaela Tajo expresses. “The notion that the holiday season is such a fun, wonderful time so embedded in our society that we feel ashamed if we don’t experience that level of joy that you’re ‘supposed’ to feel. Not everyone is so lucky to get a ton of presents or have a lot of family to celebrate with, it can make some people feel bad.”
On top of these larger issues that people dislike about Christmas, Hanukkah, and Kwanzaa; there are the smaller burdens people carry when it comes around to exchanging gifts.
“What I don’t like about the holidays is having to get presents for people I don’t know well,” freshman Julia Yu said. “I tend to waste a lot of money and sometimes people don’t like it.”
Almost every year, like clockwork, a massive amount of work appears out of nowhere like one of those cliché Christmas miracles except without the miracle part. It either hits you gradually with projects assigned weeks in advance, or piles of homework thrown at you out of nowhere so we have more grades in before winter break.
“The most annoying thing about the holidays is dealing with school right before the break,” sophomore Erin Hopkins said. “You always end up have teachers throwing as much homework as possible at you before the marking period ends and exams coming up out of nowhere as if dealing with incoming relatives wasn’t hard enough.”
So whether hearts become overfilled with joy and people’s mind can’t stop going on about the jolliest thing they can come up with, or people loth the blinding decorations and just want to stay inside instead of going to an overcrowded family gathering, everyone can always find something they hate about the upcoming holidays. The only thing you can do is hang on until New Year’s Day, only to have to do it all again in less than a year.