When college starts to take over life, the holidays are something to look forward to for multiple reasons. The main ones include, finally getting to sleep and rest, the weight of the world is literally lifted off our your shoulders for a solid week and sometimes even more, as well as getting to spend time back at home with the people closest to your heart. The holidays in college aren’t so much about the gifts as they are the little moments that lead up to big days of celebration.

It’s no secret that as we all got older, the reason behind Christmas became a lot deeper than just gifts. Gifts are just an added bonus to all the fun memories and activities that we all partake in. The magic of Christmas does not ever go away, it just grows once we start to enjoy the timeless moments like hours in the kitchen with our parents as they teach us their secret recipes and share stories from their first time learning the same ones they are now pros at.

We start to laugh and enjoy the tiny mishaps that normally would be considered fiascos, like wrapping Christmas gifts with price tags still intact or forgetting to place name tags on already wrapped gifts which leads to unwrapping all of them just to label them and wrap them back up again.

We start to enjoy the presence of the people we see because we don’t know when we’ll get to see them again because craziness of life won’t subside in between the current year’s festivities and the next one. The gifts we share start to become more meaningful and personal because everyone is dealing with budgeting and it’s nice to give gifts that add a personal touch because sometimes there is extreme distance you and the people receiving the gifts.

The meaning behind, “finding the perfect Christmas tree,” becomes known. It’s different choosing a tree when you get older because it truly becomes your tree that you share with friends or with family.

Decorating the tree starts to become a day adventure because once you throw on some Christmas music or movie and open up all the ornament boxes, you find that each ornament has a story behind it; especially the ones that were homemade and back from elementary school. Decorating on the inside and outside of the house really sets the mood for the rest of month because all the decorations become fixtures that will be around for at least a month.

You start to appreciate the decorations that have been passed down in the generations because it’s like getting to have certain family members with you to celebrate even if they can’t be.

The fun activities of the holidays are all squished into one week because once everyone is moved back home or settled back in after the semester is over, it tends to lead to sleeping during the day and going out to celebrate and partake in light seeing and holiday parties at night. The holidays are great because even if people complain that they aren’t excited it isn’t true. The inner child in everyone comes out during the holidays, no matter how much of a Scrooge people claim to be.

As the true countdown to Christmas and the holidays starts, remember to take the time to enjoy the little moments of the holidays because the experience is the main gift in itself. It’s sometimes difficult to adjust once the semester is over but don’t become too caught up in stress that you forget about all the love and fun that lay ahead. The holidays are truly a time to be happy and be with the ones you love; nothing should get in the way of that.

Happy Holidays and Merry Christmas!