Making it a Merry Christmas

Making it a Merry Christmas by Suzanne Hadley

“Hi. My name’s Suzanne and I had a lousy Christmas.”

It was December 28, and I felt like I needed to join a holiday recovery support group. As I hoisted my suitcase into a friend’s trunk, I breathed a sigh of relief to be back on my own turf. With visions of “the great Christmas blow-up” dancing in my head — and trust me, three sisters in tears is not a pretty sight — I collapsed into the front seat.

I soon learned I wasn’t alone in my post-holiday depression. Out poured my friend’s own tale of holiday woe. And in the weeks that followed, I learned that nearly everyone I knew had experienced holiday unpleasantness in some form — the critical mother, the bad gifts, the boredom, the arguments. We had all gone home looking forward to warm family times and returned in need of therapy.