Once the magic of Santa, Elf on the Shelf and other holiday festivities are gone, is the holiday of Christmas all that jolly?

As you become older, you don’t have the excitement that keeps you staring at the ceiling for hours imagining what Santa will bring you. The fun of decorating the perfect Christmas cookie to leave out for Santa on Christmas Eve is gone. As fictional beliefs are no longer in place, it can be less exciting for a holiday as a young adult.

When the readings of The Night Before Christmas come to an end, there are still other parts of the holiday with age that become more important. Specifically, the aspect of a family becomes more important than it was as a child. Getting to reunite with distant relatives or play family games over the holiday can be something teens cherish. As many of the beliefs about the holidays are no longer there, teens with younger siblings can enjoy the holiday by helping their families carry out the traditions.

Another aspect to focus on is gifts at this time of year. When a Christmas list used to be full of Barbie dolls and monster trucks, teens become much harder to buy gifts for, as most of their requests are clothes. Everyone has their own personal style and preference of fit, making it hard to spend money on an item you aren’t sure if they love. At this point, many results to gifting money or gift cards so teens can purchase their own preference of attire, which is nice, but takes away the element of surprise we used to adore from ripping wrapping paper apart. 

Holiday traditions also begin to fade as when children grow older, with some parents relying on taking family vacations over the holiday. Vacations can be very costly, so instead of parents spending money on what they see as “pointless” gifts, they replace the Christmas experience with a trip full of family memories. 

In my experience, this is what my family has resulted to. For the past three years, my family has traveled to Jackson Hole, Wyoming to stay with family to Ski. Making this a new tradition, my parents get us things like hats, ski goggles or travel necessities as our Christmas gifts that we can take along with us on the trip. As I am very lucky to have a financially stable home at the time of  Christmas, I don’t necessarily need anything. So as I will say, the actual day of Christmas has lost most of its excitement, but the memories I have made on my vacations with my family are something I wouldn’t trade for any tangible gift.