6 Non-Materialistic Things To Be Thankful For During The Holidays

Each December, we prepare for what most people consider the best time of the year: the holiday season.

Personally, the time between Thanksgiving and New Year’s is my favorite.

It’s like the “pregame” of winter, and the pregame is always my favorite part.

The atmosphere has a sense of joy that is unmistakably due to the fact that Christmas, Hanukkah or whatever other holiday you celebrate is just around the corner.

The excitement that comes around this time each year cannot be compared to any other.

While everyone undoubtedly loves getting gifts of all of the things they’ve been wanting all year, there is a lot more to the holiday season than just these materialistic items.

Tell the haters who say Millennials only care about materialistic things to bite it, because here are some of the non-materialistic things to look forward to this holiday season.

We get to do winter sports.

I don’t mean football, hockey and basketball; I mean snowboarding, skiing and sledding.

I suppose you can fly to the cold during the summer, but nobody really likes to do that.

During the holiday season, we go up to our attics, pull down all of our winter gear and get ready for those ski trips to some wintry mountain resorts.

Just like the only fun you can have on the water is during the summer, the only fun you can have on snow is during the winter.

The change of weather.

We live in a society that wants immediate gratification, and for the most part, we are able to get it.

Mother Nature, however, only allows us certain wonders at select times of the year, and snow is one of them.

Last winter I went on the Great South Bay and played ice hockey. I went swimming in that exact same location later this last summer.

Only when the world works in its naturally amazing coordinated way do we get a giant freezer that produces ice and snow. Man cannot turn a massive water mass into ice, but the winter can. The holiday season brings us some of the most beautiful things that the world offers.

We get a winter vacation.

For those Millennials still in college, the holiday season is split between joy and pain.

Joy because the semester is almost over and they get to go home, but pain because up until the days before Christmas they are stressing, cramming and studying for finals.

Once they get through that, however, they are home free for around a month.

For those Millennials like myself who have wiped away tears on countless occasions because we can’t get over the fact we have to actually work in life, the holiday season offers a different split between joy and pain.

We feel joy because we can finally relax for a few days of the year without using vacations, but pain because all the money we just earned in that last paycheck is going to go toward gifts for other people.

If we treat it as though you will receive an equal amount of gifts in return, however, we working world Millennials can really enjoy how the holiday season gives us a chance to reenergize and have a low-key end of the year.

The end of the football season happens.

Baseball is really only exciting in the last months when the playoff picture is actually being established.

The great thing about football is that games are only once a week, so each week brings new excitement.

Even better though, is the last weeks of the football season, as each game really matters with teams fighting for the final spots.

I’m not here to talk about the All-American sport of football, but the holiday season is one of the most exciting times for one of the most exciting sports.

I’ll leave it at that.

The holiday spirit illuminates an energy.

All of the non-materialistic things that I love about the holiday season are what gives this part of the year the energy it possesses.

The season is amazing; it is filled with the build-up of excitement in anticipation for Christmas, the relaxing mood at work, the reconnecting with old friends and the coming to a close of a great year.

The holiday season is a time to celebrate accomplishments of the last year and prepare for an even greater next year.

We get to have our family reunions.

Yes, I’m sure a lot of people may hate family gatherings, but family is one of the greatest gifts we have.

No matter what type of family you come from, this is the time of year to be grateful for having them, and to enjoy the company those with the same genetic makeup as you.

I love when my family gets together for holidays. We enjoy the presence of each other, and that is better than any material gift they can give.