Everyone remembers how special the holidays were during their primary school days. There were Christmas parties with activities and Polar Express playing. On Thanksgiving, we made hand turkeys and learned about how cool pilgrims were. Our childhoods were filled with joy and innocence and we could enjoy ourselves with friends and family.

According to sophomore Haley Garcia, “When I was younger, I loved to spend a lot of time with my family. I still do now obviously, but not as much time. So every single time Christmas comes around, I know it’s the time when we’re all going to have to come together. And my mom does these weird things where we have to be matching [and do] fun games, but it’s late at night and I’m tired. […] I just want to watch a movie with them and chill out with them, but they don’t want to do the same with me.” Garcia especially feels that the older you get, the more you want to be alone or independent from your family. 

As the youngest in my family, there were lots of stuff I could and couldn’t do with my, much older, cousins. There was still lots of fun and games to enjoy with them, but certain board games or conversations were forbidden for me. Nonetheless, the Christmas tree was full of presents and gifts for everyone. 

As the years went by, fewer gifts were exchanged and everyone got older. Even though I can now play the once-restricted games, everyone had already outgrown them. Christmas became more of a get-together potluck now, especially due to the hit of Covid-19. The full and abundant tree was now only full of decorations and envelopes of money. Although my cousins try to make fun activities like the “grab punch game,” a game in which you punch or puncture a cup covered by tissue paper to reveal a gift inside, Christmas wasn’t magical anymore.