Picture yourself 10 years ago from this very day. A child, filled to the brim with the thrill of another approaching holiday season. You knew this meant presents, food, family, friends, and fun! You're off from school, so you get to relax and play for over a week, and have absolutely no responsibilities!

An entire decade passes, and you no longer wake up at 7 am from a restless night, just waiting to see what Santa brought you. You're 100% prepared to see the half-eaten cookies in the living room, and the half-full glass of milk that "Santa" devoured the night before. Your mom still writes "From: Santa Clause" on all of your presents, because she doesn't want to face the reality that her children aren't truly children anymore.

Here are some things that we all experience as we mature with each passing holiday season:

1. The presents are no longer surprises.

The joy of being surprised upon opening your Christmas gifts is no longer something that's expected to happen. If your family is anything like mine, they will ask you exactly what you want, and that's exactly what you'll get.

2. You have to buy gifts for your siblings.

This is probably the second hardest thing you'll have to do during the holiday season, aside from buying gifts for your parents. The good news is, your siblings are stressing just as much about what to get you as you are about what to get them. Just shoot them a text asking them what they want - it works for my brother and me every time.

3. You wake up later and later every year.

The anticipation to open presents no longer trumps your desire to sleep in. In fact, some years it even reaches the point where your parents come to wake you up instead of you going to wake your parents up.

4. There are fewer presents under the tree.

When you're young, one of the most crucial elements of Christmas morning is making sure you have more presents under the tree than your sibling - or at least an equal amount of presents. As you grow older, it doesn't even matter how many presents are under the tree, as long as you were gifted something useful (thank you for the Magic Bullet and new desk lamp, mom!)

5. You receive a lot of cash.

Your extended family no longer has any idea what to get you since they can no longer go to a toy store or GameStop and pick up an average children's gift for you. As you grow older, it only makes sense to give you straight-up money; that way, you can just buy whatever you need.

6. The Christmas decorations don't go up outside anymore.

This one makes me the saddest out of all of the hard truths of growing up. I was always unbelievably excited to watch my father and older brother string Christmas lights all across our two-story home, place plastic reindeer on our front lawn, and hang a beautiful wreath on our front door. Now, all we put up is a Christmas tree. RIP.

7. You have to go to work the next day.

I swear, this is the biggest reality-check to ever exist. Christmas is over, now go back to making those phone calls or waiting on those customers.

8. You're actually broke afterward.

I guess going to work immediately following Christmas isn't so bad, considering our bank accounts are probably all at -$200 from Christmas shopping.

9. You learn that Santa Clause isn't even real.

We all went the first 10 (or so) years of our lives believing a man with a huge white beard lived in the North Pole, owned elves who built toys and flew around the globe in one night to deliver gifts to every child on the globe. Amazing.