The holiday season. Everyone loves it. Mountains of snow on the ground, hot drinks and a happy spirit. But that’s the holiday season as everybody describes it. When you take a closer look, the holidays are pretty overrated.

Although the holidays have their upsides, such as spending time with family, at their core, winter holidays are a cold, expensive, stressful time of year that receive far too much hype each time they come around.

The Holiday season came and went, and as usual it was full of cold, dark weather, early morning school days and way too early 4pm sunsets. I walk outside and it’s -10℉. And that snow, so glorified in Hallmark movies during the holiday season, becomes ice that makes it hard to walk and drive anywhere, leaving people stuck in their houses (as if the pandemic had not kept us locked inside enough).

The holiday season is not only cold, but it’s appallingly expensive. Every year there seems to be a heftier price tag that comes with buying gifts for Mom, Dad, my brother and friends. Sure, you could give me the classic line of, “It’s the season of giving!” But when it comes down to it, the expensive, last-minute gift shopping devolves into stress, which leads me to my final point.

Winter holidays elicit a great amount of unnecessary stress in people. Having to worry about the arrival of family, buying the perfect presents, not freezing to death and finishing up the boatload of schoolwork that piles up before break makes it virtually impossible to steal a moment of joy.

The holiday season definitely has potential. If things weren’t so commercial and the season was more about spending time with loved ones, then it could be great. Now that the season has come to a close, I can finally put my mind at ease.