Danielle Garica | Contributing Writer
Over the course of the next two months or so, we will all hopefully be spending quality time with our friends and family, wearing the warmest sweater your grandmother knit for you, making s’mores by the fireplace, drinking eggnog to warm you up, singing carols and having a merry, good time.
If that is the case, then you must live somewhere at least above Orlando because, here in Miami, we don’t have those cold winter pleasures.
I’ve spent Christmas up north before and, although it was exceedingly cold, it was so much more enjoyable than spending it in the humid, 80 degree weather of Miami. When it’s cold and snowing and you’re layered up with scarves and sweaters, you know it’s the holiday season.
If you’re sweating, wearing shorts and sandals while eating a turkey dinner, something’s not quite right.
I feel very strongly about this, probably more than most; holidays are better where the winters are cold, with hot chocolate and the crazy people you call your family.
It’s disingenuous spending it in hot weather, unless you’re purposely taking a trip to a warm destination for the holidays, of course.
Apart from the lack of cold I would like for the holidays, every year after Halloween, I get that Christmas-holiday-feeling inside me that used to be more potent when I was a little kid.
Growing up has definitely taken some of the fun out of the holidays. I guess I don’t expect as much as when I was little.
When you’re little, your family makes the most out of your innocence. They go out of their way for you to have the best time— setting up the Christmas tree, shopping, hiding presents and waking up in the middle of the night to eat the cookies you left for Santa while quietly setting up the presents then, finally, seeing your reaction in the morning.
Honestly, knowing Santa Claus doesn’t exist was my first heartbreak as a little kid. I used to be so excited Christmas morning when my family and I opened presents. Now, as an adult, I miss that.
I miss the thrill of being a little kid during the holidays.