The Holidays: So Near Yet So Far.
The Holidays are here.
Instead of the peaceful feeling leading up to festivities with friends and family, the routine business of the everyday and last-minute stress of sudden non-holiday activities filled the last few days.
Days have not magically slowed down with Christmas Parties busying the world of work and without the cold in the air.
Nights are warm, and roads are loud and busy as if on the brink of a busy summer instead of cozy steps away from the demands of adult life, hiding behind a Christmas tree and piles of gifts.
The cost of working online.
In the regular office, everyone slows down with personal Christmas plans and preparations for the office Christmas party. Work demands take a step back for festivity preparation, gift buying, and corporate-wide, year-end celebrations.
Instead of kicking it back and completing Christmas shopping or sweetly tying gifts with an inordinate bow, I am chasing client feedback responses and trying to bag last-minute, year-end deals. No one around me is kicking back in time for Christmas or filling my ‘office’ with tinsel and Christmas balls.
My home is as busy as it was last summer. The routine has stayed the same, but the days fly by. Christmas has passed, and New Year is just around the corner. And I am just as tired as ever.
A few days before Christmas, Christmas shopping was still pending, and gifts needed wrapping. The wrapping was done a few hours before Christmas Eve, while items on my gift list are still pending today. On top of that, I planned to bake, fix the mess of my room, and complete the Folk of the Air Series (the only item checked off this list—because it is so worth it!).
Christmas and Holiday Traditions Change as the Years Go By
In contrast to the missing workload slowdown, office Christmas decorations, and the much-awaited office Christmas party, my new job has a Christmas shutdown. We stop operations over the holidays, something I never had in my corporate job. Something I am ecstatic about!
Last year, I spent the shutdown in Cebu. This year, I am just stuck here. No wonder the upcoming holidays feel mundane. Nothing new is happening, nothing to be excited about, nothing to prepare for except all the tasks I hope I will get done over the shutdown—and, of course, the celebration of the holidays itself.
No wonder Hallmark Christmas movies are so appealing. The plot revolves around a main character stepping away from their daily lives to spend Christmas in some small town far from the calls and demands of the regular business day. Or they head back to their hometown and are hit by the nostalgia of Christmas from their past.
Instead of escaping the everyday work day from home, I am stuck at home but gladly remind myself that I should not work. I should not check and respond to emails.
Oh, how Christmas has changed.
As a child, Christmas break meant sleeping in, cousins visiting, eating, and dancing around the fireplace with choreographed presentations.
Christmas, when I was in college, meant a break from requirements, binging social media or films, reading books, and helping prepare the necessary for the celebration. Gone are the visits from relatives. Gone are the careless dances around the fireplace.
As an adult, Christmas meant setting aside a budget for Christmas shopping, seeing the leave schedules of everyone else and hoping to bag one for yourself on the coveted dates (especially when I was in the corporate world), planning aside from helping with all the necessary preparations, and personal gift wrapping. Previously, this was all while juggling full weeks of work with only the 24th and 25th free from responsibilities.
Gladly, I found a company that extends our holiday break to a whole week.
Hopefully, with the Holiday shutdown, Christmas and New Year can mean more than all the responsibilities for the season. May it also be one where I can sleep in, spend time with people I love, maybe even go out and visit people I haven’t seen in so long, and hopefully, dance around the fireplace without a care in the world.
Happy Holidays, everyone!
Busyzi 
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