The holiday season holds something more than just presents and good food, but what is it exactly? I can’t really put my finger on the exact word or answer that sums up the feeling I get when I’m driving at night underneath the stars and everybody has lights up on their houses.
The holiday season holds a special place in many people’s hearts, but there is no word to describe the sensation everybody gets, no matter what holiday they celebrate specifically. Even those who do not celebrate winter holidays see all the decorations and feel the magic in the air.
I use the word “magic” because that’s the closest word in the English dictionary to describe what’s in the air during this time of the year. So many people are cheerful. People sing in the streets, caroling with frosty noses and rosy cheeks.
Many parents would also use the term “magical” when describing a short, round, white-bearded man that comes down every house’s chimney one night every year. I think this is where the word “magic” was first applied to the winter holidays but not where the magical feeling started. It didn’t start with Santa Claus on 24th Street or Kevin McCallister’s adventures while at home alone.
The feeling has always been here but it now is covered by nostalgia and parties. Not saying parties aren’t a part of the holidays, but the feeling is still there without them. The magic binds everybody together as one. It has always been with us and forever will be. The magic dies when we die. It’s not a childhood feeling that goes away after a while, but it stays with us throughout our whole lives, growing and changing at the same pace we do.
It doesn’t matter which holiday the people celebrate necessarily because the feeling transcends all of them.
The feeling of magic does not affect people differently based on their religions or beliefs.
It’s indescribable by one word. People say, “It’s just the Christmas spirit,” but those who don’t celebrate Christmas still feel it.
Senior Ruchi Hegde does not celebrate any winter holidays, hasn’t done a gift exchange in her family for a few years now and has never put up a Christmas tree in her house before. Yet, she still says she can feel the spirit of the holiday season.
“[Friends’ happiness] makes me happy…during the holidays,” Hegde said. “Some people really go all out, in decorations. Seeing other people decorate, for me, is really cool to see.”
Many people feel the magic of the holidays even if they don’t celebrate one themselves. It’s an interesting feeling because it doesn’t exclude anybody unless they try to exclude themselves. The only person I know who has done that is a fictional character named Ebenezer Scrooge, oddly enough from an old Christmas tale. Yet, throughout the night of Christmas Eve Scrooge learns to include himself in the holiday spirit and once again he finds himself feeling the holiday spirit.
The indescribable feeling for the holiday magic we all feel is here to stay and I feel like we should create a word for it, but at this point “magic” just fits so well. It would be a shame to put more scientific labels on an unscientific feeling – the feeling of magic.