“Christmastime is here, happiness and cheer. Fun for all that children call their favorite time of year.” (Vince Guaraldi and Lee Mendelson)

As with many people around the world, the holidays usually fill me with joy and make me appreciate the magic of the season. However, after dealing with a worldwide pandemic the past few years, I’m having some trouble finding the magic.

I know I couldn’t be the only person feeling this way, so I reached out to my friends and family to gauge their feelings as well. I was not alone.

Some people cited fear of celebrating with new COVID-19 variants popping up. Others reported financial strains are making them feel like failures during this gift-giving time of year, while others say they are generally exhausted and burned out from everything going on.

I also asked how they are fighting back to try and ignite the holiday spark. A number of people mentioned they are adding extra decorations inside their homes to surround themselves with holiday reminders. Others are binging on holiday movies and performances such as “The Nutcracker,” spending time with children to see the magic through their eyes or giving back to others through programs such as Toys for Tots, Angel Trees and Foster Angels.

One friend is making daily video blogs of her day.

“It’s been fun to purposefully seek out Christmas decorations and listen to Christmas music. The spirit is starting to come back,” she mentioned.

Another friend, originally from New Jersey, has been living in California. He mentioned heading back East for the holidays to experience the colder weather to help awaken the Christmas spirit for him.

In an effort to find the magic, I got everything together to wrap the gifts for everyone on my list. Gift-giving is always one of my favorite parts of the holiday season.

I thought seeing everyone’s gifts in one place would awaken the holiday spirit inside me. Unfortunately, I forgot to factor in my cats. As anyone with a cat can tell you, it is a challenge wrapping gifts when they want to lay on/play with the paper, tape, scissors, plastic, boxes and anything else you are currently using in that moment.

However, later that night, I received a notification the final gift I was waiting on had arrived from the post office.

I felt a sense of excitement course through me as I left my apartment’s mail room. I even found myself singing, “It’s beginning to feel a lot like Christmas.”

There it was - the spark.

I decided to build upon that feeling. The next day we decorated the apartment for the holidays while watching Christmas movies. We even baked cookies to tap into all the senses. There was definitely happiness and a little extra jingle in my step.

When I woke up this morning and walked into the living room with all the decorations - a sight that normally fills me with joy - I felt very little, and there is nothing wrong with that.

In a Dec. 6 article on stylist.co.uk titled “Mental health at Christmas: It’s OK if you’re not feeling festive this year,” Lauren Geall writes the last few years have been a time of loss and not only the people who lost their lives in the pandemic.

“In varying degrees, every single one of us has lost something due to the pandemic - whether that be jobs, relationships, businesses, routines, plans, money or time,” she said, adding the grieving process associated with those losses dominates our lives.

Geall reminds us how much strain we’ve all been placed under, so we need to be kind to ourselves and take care to nurture our mental health.

“As the time of year comes to an end, we have an opportunity to spend some time doing what we need to recharge - and now more than ever, that’s exactly what we all deserve,” she says.

She reminds us that setting boundaries and giving ourselves permission to change traditions is important.

One thing I noticed in my conversations with people and personal observations is that finding the holiday spirit might take an extra step this year - intention.

While back in “normal times” the festive spirit would automatically awaken once we start hearing the music and seeing the lights, that may not be the case anymore. We may need to make the conscious decision to take steps to instill the joy and magic of the holidays.

Whether you find a way to awaken the holiday magic, only feel it in spurts like myself or if you don’t end up feeling it at all, that’s perfectly OK.

Be kind to yourself.

Samantha Anderson

editorial assistant

Whitehall-Coplay Press

Northampton Press

Catasauqua Press