Question of the Week: What’s your favorite thing about the so-called ‘holiday season’?

It’s almost Christmas, and even if you don’t celebrate, you probably still have the day off, so good for you! I always like this time of year, whether I live somewhere cold (which I did growing up) or someplace warm (where I live now), and I’m wondering, if you like this time of year too, what your favorite thing about it is. It’s a Question!

I know that we here in ‘Murica aren’t having the greatest year in history, but that doesn’t mean the holiday season can’t be fun. I guess it begins at Halloween, but I’m thinking the month from Thanksgiving to Christmas and then the New Year. I always liked Thanksgiving — we usually got together with a friend of my mom’s, and they had three kids and we had two, so it was a decent gathering. These days we spend it without family because they live so far away, but I like it because we usually get to sit outside and my wife usually makes lasagna, and her tomato sauce is delicious. I like Christmas, too — again, we don’t always spend it with family, but usually every other year my parents come out to visit us, and this year my sister and her husband are coming, so it should be fun. We’re going to church on Christmas Eve, which I haven’t done in a long time, but if there’s one day that could get me in a church, it’s the Christmas Eve service, because it’s usually pretty neat. Christmas Day should be nice and pleasant, too. We’re getting our dinner “catered” by Cracker Barrel — we have to pick all the food up, but they make it! — and we’ve done that before, and it’s pretty good.

I like all these things, but I think what I like the best is the weird feeling of the holiday season. I know people work, and I know it gets busy, and I know people aren’t as nice as they should be because they must get that stupid toy for their spoiled child, but I like how there’s a weird, quasi-somnolent feeling to late November and December. People are having holiday parties, and they’re preparing for Thanksgiving or Hanukah or Christmas, and it seems like they just can’t be bothered with their jobs too much. I mean, it sucks when you’re actually trying to get something done, as I am right now before the end of the year (we’ll see if I’ll be able to!), but I also appreciate the fact that for quite a while at the end of the year, our country seems to slow down a little bit. It’s illusory to a degree, and the Tangerine Fuckwit occupying the White House makes sure that we can’t relax too much, but in general, December — despite everyone running around trying to create a “perfect” holiday — has more of a chill vibe than we usually get in this country. At least that’s how it seems to me. Maybe it’s because the weather here is actually nice at this time, but I remember, in school, for instance, this kind of weird vibe where the teachers were trying to do mid-terms but also not giving much of a fuck because it was almost their break. It was odd, but kind of neat.

So that’s what I like most about the “holiday season.” What’s your favorite thing about it?