Thanksgiving Day night. A day full of gratitude and even more calories  winds down. The adults wrap up the leftovers and relatives prepare for the long drive ahead. I sit at the kitchen table, a cup of coffee by my side, wondering where the day decided to go and why it made such a point to leave so quickly.
I am known to over analyze, over do, over achieve, over everything. Because of my ability to “over” all in my life, I very often overemphasize the holiday season. I plan for this day all year-long, and I chalk it up in my head to be the season that will never end, it will skip on and on with one perfect moment after another. The holiday season will just stay there implanted in our hearts every single day. Every day there will be a decking of a tree, a singing of a carol, the eating of gingerbread men and a sign of snow in the air. Every night we will turn on the white lights, have a cup of hot cocoa and go to sleep with visions of sugar plums dancing in our heads.

I wish. Really, I do. I decorated in October for this very reason. There is just something special, an indescribable feeling that hangs in the air, from Thanksgiving Day to Christmas Night. But why? Why do we force this beautiful feeling to be slammed between November 24 and December 25? Why do we give ourselves one measly month to be good to one another, to be thankful, to stop and appreciate the scenery?

Of course the holiday season can have its share of chaos and cruelty, many of which will transpire as the stores open at 4a.m. tomorrow, but there does seem to be an undeniable urge to be better to one another. It seems like it always pushes everyone to write a few Christmas cards and help out at a homeless shelter, stop what they are doing and just be with one another. Maybe with great practice we could capture the essence of this season and slowly but surely work it into our everyday life, whether it be Christmas Eve or July 1.

My decision this holiday season is to soak it up for everything that it is. I plan to drain out the holiday season and really appreciate it. Come midnight I will shop, I will be good to my friends and family, I will merrily sing Christmas songs til people beg me to stop. But maybe, just maybe, I will let this “Buddy the Elf” mentality stick around after the advent calendar has ended.

The holiday season has the potential to bring out the best in all of us. Let’s not pack it up again with the boxes of ornaments ready to go up to the attic.

‘Tis the season.. lets not worry about when it is going to fall away from us… It may just be better if we let the holiday season hold us, instead of trying to hold it too tightly.