10 Reasons Most People Hate the Holidays

The holidays bring joy and kindness but they also bring sadness and stress. It's a time when people come together for each other and reflect on the year that was. This year, it's been hard. The kind of hard that makes you want to run away for a few years and come back after the dust has settled. But alas, we must live through the moments of our lives to truly live. And to be clear... It's always worth living through it.

Photo By: GBRLIFE LLC…(and a very pregnant Author)

But let’s look at the reasons people dread living through it.

1. Expectations- They exist day to day but the holidays are just way more intense about them. And they come from everyone. The expectation to be more kind, Pay it forward, Show up, Buy things, Gather. It's a lot and never ending.

2. Family- Family is the whole list of why people hate the holidays in one. It's the expectations, the debt, the pretending, the memories, ect. And they alone can make anyone want to speed up December.

3. Memories- The good and the bad are here for us all to dwell on during the holidays, and as we get older they just haunt us about what has changed and what will never be the same. ( Change isn't always a bad thing)

5. The debt of Presents- People barely have enough for themselves most of the time and the holidays mean presents for those they love and it gets really hard for many families to make it happen.

6. Having to Pretend more when Dealing with Mental Illness- This is not to say anyone should pretend but when people are stressed out and dealing with mental illness, they often don't want to talk about it or make it a bigger talking point during the holidays so it's easy to find yourself hiding your emotions about it all.

7. Commercialized Holidays- For some Jesus is the reason for the season. So when the holidays become about Santa and buying things, it leaves some people upset about the lack of wholesome traditions they may have once felt the world had. That being said, this is usually just a feeling. The Commercialized holiday isn't necessarily something that has to interfere with your families fun and/or keeping Jesus around.

8. Gatherings- This year is different with Covid but normally it's not easy for everyone to have to gather all the time. What I mean by that is some people are not the most social butterflies and the thought have having to get together with people makes them very uncomfortable. But those people have Covid as an excuse this year!

9. House Guests- The saying is people stink after 3 days, but I personally feel like it depends on the person. Either way, not everyone wants to have someone in their home and the holidays become really hard to have a good reason to say no to that houseguest.

10. Their Jobs- Jobs aren't usually everyone's favorite place but when the holidays hit. They can go from bearable to the place you dread more than life. Especially those working in customer service. People can be way more demanding, rude and just overall difficult. Not to mention the constant Christmas music.

No matter what the reason, The holidays aren't merry for everyone. And that's ok. We don't all have to love December.

But we do have to remember to be kind to everyone, because we have no idea what someone is going through.