It has been almost three years since COVID hit, and things still are not anywhere near back to normal. One of those things being the holiday spirit. Ever since COVID, the holidays were a time of being by yourself and doing holiday activities on your own, if you even had the spirit to do so.

The holidays are a nostalgic time for me. Being a kid my family and I would go to Candy Cane Lane as much as we could and look at the beautiful bright lights on every single house. Family from around the world would come and we would hang out every day and walk around town admiring the Christmas decorations and ice skating. I love it and always look forward to it every year. But during COVID those things couldn’t happen and caused me to not be super into the holidays like I normally am. 

 During the lockdown, we could not go out and risk getting friends and family sick by celebrating with them. Because of this, most people spent the holidays alone or with the people they lived with. A lot of my family members spent the holidays alone because they did not live with anyone. We all tried to make the holidays as special as we could make them, but it was difficult when you could not physically be with someone. Having things like Zoom and Facetime made it easier than having no contact with anyone at all, but it gets to a point when you need to have human interaction.

Before COVID Christmas looked like waking up excited for the day to come and going to activities around the town like Christmas in the park, parades, and going to see Santa down at Old Poway Park. But we could not risk doing those things and being in crowds or else we could get sick.

My Christmas and Thanksgivings during COVID were definitely lonely. My mom tried to make it special, and I appreciate that, but the biggest part of the holidays for me was going to my grandparent’s house, seeing my family, playing board games, sitting with each other, and talking about our lives since we last saw each other.

Christmas in the Park and things like that are coming back this year, and it helps me feel like everything is slowly going back to as normal as we can make them. Seeing people from around town enjoying the Christmas activities gives me faith that the holiday spirit is coming back. Of course, things are not going to be completely back to normal, and everyone is still going to have to be cautious, but it is nice seeing everyone together and happy.

Even though holiday activities are coming back I do think the holiday spirit is still gone because nothing feels the same. In my family, there have been conversations about not getting Christmas trees, and not doing the family traditions we normally did like going to church on Christmas Eve and getting hot chocolate and walking down Candy Cane Lane together because no one has the time anymore and even though COVID is not as serious as it once was, we need to keep my grandparents safe. 

I miss the feeling of waking up during the months between October and December and having something to look forward to each month. It is a relief knowing that the new year is just around the corner and I get a fresh start. 

The holidays have been a way to escape and celebrate in the dark times of the world. Everyone could come together and forget their struggles for a couple of days. 

The rough patch during COVID showed us how much we value the holidays and how much joy they bring us.