31 Days meme: The spirit of winter holidays.

purplecat asked:

What, for you, is or should be or you wish was (or all three) the spirit of midwinter festivities?

Huh, this isn't a thing I've given a whole lot of thought to.

I'm not religious, so I don't ascribe a particular spiritual meaning to the winter holidays. And I'm not sure how to navigate the whole "spending time with family" thing (that has its good bits and bad bits). So I guess I don't have a good answer to this question.

I think there is value to having a bright spot in the darkest bit of the year, to tide us over until spring. And I think there is community-strengthening value in having things to celebrate and things to share. And I like getting gifts, though one thing that bugs me about the winter holiday season is how commercial it's become. I think there are a lot of things that have value about this season, but I think things can have value without necessarily being the one and only thing that is the spirit of the season.

And I think saying that one singular thing is or should be the spirit of the season in some ways closes us off to the possibility of multiple aspects of it having value. So I'm going to stick with "I have no good answer"!