Now that the holiday season is over some may experience nostalgia from their past Christmases and New Year rituals when compared to their recent holidays.

Shared over social media, I always see others post about not experiencing the same feeling and excitement they felt for Christmas as they did when they were much younger. Personally, I agree.

As a child, having Christmas spirit was everything. Within elementary schools, teachers made time for incentives such as the day before Christmas break for students to watch holiday movies, give out Christmas-themed snacks, and even go as far as having a secret Santa for their classes.

Obviously, as time goes on, teachers and even parents will eventually stop putting in effort to make a child feel some sort of Christmas spirit. Middle and high schoolers are required to take semester exams right before students go on Christmas break. So, that takes away time from having “parties” that are Christmas-themed. It’s as if the magic of Christmas is slowly losing its wand.

But this isn’t only a school thing. It’s also a community effort as well. Every year, I see less and less houses with decorated Christmas lights or porch/yard decorations around their houses. Yet, for it to only be the beginning of December, I have seen a decent amount of house decorations, and that’s a great start.

Additionally, commercialization is another factor. I personally believe that the commercialization of Christmas has only been about shopping and giving gifts, which overshadows the actual meaning of Christmas. Now, I’m not saying that there’s anything wrong with shopping for Christmas; gifting is part of the Christmas tradition, but shopping shouldn’t be the only topic that is commercialized for Christmas advertisement.

This could make people, especially children, think that the only purpose of Christmas is to receive materialistic gifts and not that it is about spending time with loved ones and expressing gratitude to Jesus.