The spectrum of family traditions for the holidays at Haven is wide. From holiday movies to gingerbread house competitions, the holidays allow us to check back in with the people we love.
Whatever your family traditions are, nowadays, the holidays are less about family and more about the break. It looks like recovery from school, sleeping in, and often staying in your room during big family dinners.
But the holidays aren’t just a break from school. They should be a time to reconnect with your family—not talk about college or academics, because that doesn’t really count—and to have fun (which, according to Merriam-Webster, is something that provides entertainment, amusement, or enjoyment, and academics often provide very little of that).
We forget to have fun on the holidays.
So instead of reminiscing about better times from our childhood, we should enjoy the times we have now. That childhood you might think of so fondly isn’t over.
We are not done being kids yet, and we should act like it despite a world that scares us.
No teenager wants to be alone, especially not on the holidays. Recovery from school shouldn’t be in the form of your room when you can be with family instead.
Family can mean a lot of things to a lot of different people. Maybe it’s your siblings, grandparents, cousins, or friends. Whatever you define family as, take this time as an opportunity to reach out first. Lay down your textbooks and college essays. Allow yourself to make the memories that you’ll actually care about in ten years.
Having fun isn’t just for the intrinsic joy behind it. Taking time for enjoyable activities has been proven to lessen stress by having a role in reducing cortisol alongside higher levels of positive psychological states. When these benefits of having fun are combined with the value that friendships and close relationships provide, namely those of preventing loneliness and depression, this provides a fantastic way to improve your life while still having a good time.
Continue the family traditions, or bring back ones you’ve missed. It’s scary to think that you might be anywhere in the world in just a year or four. You might be away from your home. These are the memories that you’ll carry on your first day in an unfamiliar place, and these are the memories that will also make you hopelessly homesick.
Create new family traditions: watch new movies, hang out with new people, or go to new places. We live right next to a city with an awesome Christmas Market and an ice skating rink. Make pillow forts. Eat an atrocious amount of whipped cream directly from the can. You’re not too old to do these things and not too old to be happy.
Seniors end up making most of their conversations with their parents about post-high school plans. Try setting a rule, like putting aside an allotted ten-minute slot per day for talking about those topics.
Even if you’re not a senior, block out some time this break to be with your family more. Play board games or go on walks with siblings. Sometimes, even when you have a huge pile of stuff to do, putting it aside to hang out with the people you love can help you feel less stressed later.
Being a teenager, especially in this generation, can feel so isolating. Don’t let yourself drift away.
