Does The Christmas Spirit Change With Age?

As we all age, the spirit of Christmas seems to lessen. Our collective excitement is surely disappearing. There always used to be this nearly palpable ‘magic’ that I could feel during my younger years. As I age, the sentimental feelings diminish substantially. Christmas just doesn’t have that spark that it used to.

Maybe the magic we felt during Christmas-time was due to our childish minds craving the presents and the delay of waiting an entire month to get them. I’ve always noticed that time seems to go by quicker as I would age, and this year is really starting to show me how fast time actually does pass.

Days are morphing into weeks in the blink of an eye, which I know will inevitably become months, then years. Maybe this time-stretch I am experiencing is why I don’t love Christmas anymore. Maybe the absence of eagerness for Christmas to arrive, because of how fast time is going by for us all, is why the magic is going away.

I feel there is a strong correlation between these events. Other factors are involved as well (like the massive stress of sub-adulthood) but I feel as though this one has never been addressed.

I have tried to figure out what it is that seems to make the time pass quicker with age, and maybe even size, but I just can’t deduce it. Maybe the answer only lies in the relation of size to time.

As we all know, bugs live short lives, but maybe the life didn’t feel so short to the bug. Ever wonder why a fly can expertly evade an incoming flyswatter? Maybe it’s because they experience time at a much slower rate in relation to us.

We must, then, seem like big slow giants to them. I envy the idea of being able to live so slowly. If a fly lives for one day (in our manner of time scale) how long for us would the life of that fly had been if we were experiencing the same speed of time? It could be years, meaning a single day for us is a lifetime for them.

This gives me a new interpretation of the phrase “enjoy the little things”, the key may be that you have to be little in order to enjoy said little things. We must enjoy being children while we can because I sense that it’s all downhill from here.

Time will just keep flying by faster and faster until we run out. My advice for everyone and myself this holiday is to stop and enjoy the little things. Go watch the snowfall and admire the decorations, drink some hot chocolate, just try to reconnect with the Christmas spirit.

The connection between all of us and our feelings towards Christmas may be severed, but I feel it is necessary to reconnect them before we run out of time that is.