Christmas is fun, there’s no denying. The excitement of wondering what you’ll open on Christmas morning, ugly sweater parties, all the delicious food, you get to spend the holidays with the ones you love most. But of course, there’s always the typical holiday “struggles” that sometimes leave us with fond memories to look back on and others we’d rather forget.

Decorating. Every year, in the deepest parts of your house is where the Christmas decorations reside and every year after Thanksgiving (or before), these boxes are dusted off and pulled out from where they have been jammed and forgotten about since January. Some people get really into decorating, while everyone in my family wants to run the other way because we have so many decorations and it takes forever to pack everything up, clean, and then decorate. This includes lots of heavy lifting, groaning and most likely swearing. But the house always looks so cozy and festive when it’s done!

The Christmas Tree. You can’t have Christmas without it! If you have an artificial tree, then maybe you should consider yourself lucky because going to pick out a tree at a farm or a certified seller can be difficult. Everyone has to agree that the one you’ll eventually end up getting is going to be “THE tree.” You have to figure out if it’ll look good in the house, where it’s going to go, etc. Whether it’s fake or not, you have to haul it to its destined spot, and always ends up making a mess.

Then you have to actually decorate it, and we all know that stringing lights through the tree can be annoying, especially if there’s sap and needles everywhere. If your tree is pre-lit, you are lucky. Then come all of the ornaments and the fight for who puts on the tree topper.

White Christmas? This can be a hit or miss for most of the U.S. which has seasons, (not looking at you Florida.) There’s always something magical and wonderful about a beautiful white Christmas. The trees and the streets covered in glistening snow that makes the town look like a painted holiday card. IT’s just so beautiful. Unfortunately, most of the time, there is no white Christmas, but mainly cold ones.

Wrapping presents. Now that you’ve finally gotten everyone’s gifts after much critical thinking and crazy trips to the mall, you have to wrap everything. If you’re like me, you completely forget to by boxes and ribbons and wrapping paper to wrap the stuff in so it’s taking up room somewhere until you can make it out to Wal-Mart. Then of course, you have the wrapping itself, which can be a mess in itself. The tape is sticking to everything except the paper, it folds over, or you’ve not cut the right amount of paper. Of course, you’ll never be as good as your mom or grandma, and your presents looked like a six year old wrapped them in comparison.

Pollyanna/Secret Santa. While these can be so much fun, it can also be annoying and expensive. Sometimes your group decides to do a group gift exchange, when you really don’t want to. The fact is, you’re going to be closer with some people than others in your group, and those you don’t know so well, you have to rack your brains to try and figure out something to buy them that isn’t lazy, and looks like you thought a lot about it. While many groups also use a money limit, they also sometimes have a “no gift card rule” because that tends to be a little over used. This can also be a real struggle if you’re on a tight budget.

School. If one thing can ruin Christmas cheer, it’s the fact that finals are happening when all you really want to do is watch Christmas movies and sleep. It’s hard to get in the spirit when you have three paper, a project, and four tests in a week. Enough said.

Working Retail. Retail workers do not get paid enough during the holidays to deal with all of the craziness that happens. Literally, it’s like World War Three breaking out over something trivial like, a line confusion, coupon problems, the lack of a certain product, the list can be endless. People are in a hurry and rude, and it’s not like the employees can really do much, for the fear of losing their job. Most time they get blamed and harassed for things that are no where near their fault, but the customers use it an excuse to yell at them, because they’re stressed. Personally, I believe that everyone should work retail at Christmas and the world would be a much better place.

The Holiday Photo.This is always what mom and dad want to send out to basically everyone, or at least put up on Facebook since not a lot of people really send out Christmas cards anymore. Maybe you want to do one with your friends or significant other, but it can always be hard to find a time to take a picture. Most of the time it take a lot of planning and group messaging because everyone always has so many activities going on. And then what to wear? That’s a whole other issue. Who doesn’t look good in sweaters, who wants to do Christmas colors, Santa hats or elf hats, color coordination, etc

Despite all this, Christmas is still pretty much everyone’s favorite holiday. These “struggles” are all part of the fun and craziness that go along with this time of year. It wouldn’t be the holidays without them.