In the West, ‘it’s the most wonderful time of the year’, because the holiday season is just around the corner. Here in the continental U.S., where I live, from Thanksgiving until the New Year, the entire country dons a festive look. People shop, travel, donate, watch holiday movies, bake chocolate chip cookies, drink hot cocoa with marshmallows, get together with families, and in the colder states, play in the snow.
There are so many reasons for me to love this season!
Holiday decorations and lightings
As the holiday season nears, families get into the holiday spirit, adding glitz to homes, making them merry, bright, and beautiful, inside and out. Like many others, we drive around cities and neighbourhoods just to marvel at Christmas decorations that make everything so bright and beautiful.
The holiday fever also touches our family — we bring out our holiday table runner, snowman-themed mugs, bowls, dishes and pillow cases, and light up our Crimson Queen Japanese maple tree in the driveway.
An occasion to thank people
The holiday season is an occasion to thank the people whose work we appreciate and whose presence makes a difference in our lives every day. We buy greeting cards and gifts for the people we love and care for. For us, this is a time to thank our daughter’s class teacher, school bus driver and martial art instructors, our mailman, immediate and extended families, friends and neighbours. And because the stores overflow with merchandise at this time of the year, shopping for gifts is just that much easier!
Foods and drinks
The holiday season is synonymous with good food and good drinks. This is the time to bake cookies at home, even if I just make them from cookie mixes! This is the season to satisfy my sweet tooth — I indulge myself and nibble peppermint Oreos, Danish cookies, candy truffles, and fruit cake. I sip pumpkin spice latte, hot chocolate, and peppermint mocha. I gain weight, but I overlook those extra pounds, because at the end of the day, ‘good food means good mood’.
Coats, boots, hats, and scarves
This is the time to have some fun with fashion. The days may be cold, and the evenings dark and drizzly, but that does not mean one has to compromise on style. Sweaters, long coats, puffer jackets, black tights, tall boots, hats, gloves, and statement scarves add chic and glamour to a woman’s everyday look.
No school
This is the perfect time to spend time with my child, as schools are closed for Thanksgiving, Christmas, and the New Year. Holiday season is the time to snuggle with my daughter on a cold winter morning; watch ‘Home Alone 2: Lost in New York’ for the umpteenth time; play outside on a snowy day; enjoy a short vacation somewhere; or sit together at the dining table and dunk cookies in hot chocolate.
The holiday season is such a wonderful time of the year that you cannot help but want to become part of it, and that too, very happily. Happy Holidays!
