Essay - Reflective Essay Reflection Essay: the Meaning of Holidays Holidays are...

Reflective Essay

Reflection Essay: The Meaning of Holidays

***** are always a time of person*****l reflection. Every year, my extended family observes the same traditions, and this makes us remember the previous *****, ***** all ***** the years before. However, every holiday is slightly different. People move away, older relatives pass on, and younger ***** get older. Every year I am a little older as well, and looking back upon my previous *****s with my family, I always gain a sense of perspective on how much I have changed. And, unfortunately, every year seems to grow a bit more nerve-wracking in terms of how the holiday should be celebrated. Although people have ***** complained that holidays ***** become too commercialized, it ***** this has ***** the case even more so than when I was a young child. While I still love holidays, I think people need to stop looking at the media to tell them wh***** a 'perfect' holiday should resemble, and instead try to make the holiday meaningful and personal without so much anxiety.

***** began to think about this ***** I saw Halloween paraphernalia in the s*****res, sometime around ***** time of August. The young trick-or-treaters I observed wandering around wore c*****fully designed clothing, rather than the imaginatively assembled costumes ***** my friends during our early childhood. Of course, the curfews were strictly enforced. All of ***** new trick-or-treaters were accompanied by adults. ********** parental figures, I am sure, ***** there to carefully sift through the small pile ***** candy to eliminate anything unwrapped, too sticky for braces, or perhaps ***** possessing a grain or two of sugar. ***** I am not advocating a tot*****l disregard for life and limb, it seems as if something ***** been lost from this holiday. What ***** loved about the holiday ***** most ***** the sense of release, of running ***** the neighborhood wild and free, ***** caring how I looked, defying adult rules about ***** right way to behave and eat for one previous day. Today, parents are reared on sensationalist *****s stories that warn them of the dire consequences ***** what can happen to their children ***** they look away for a moment. A holid*****y of fun and childish pranks has become carefully controlled and beautified for the adult eye. Now, s*****res tell kids how to look, what ***** buy, and ***** are told how *****y must ***** as parents to feel as if they are doing 'the right thing.'

Thanksgiving has also become more ***** a source of tension than a time of relaxed family to*****herness. The ***** bird ***** grown larger and larger over the years, in an effort to outdo the last year's feast. *****one is trying ***** find impress everyone else with the recipe found in the most current fashionable cooking magazine. Everyone worries about people not having a good time, not liking what is prepared, about potential fighting, ***** how to navigate an increasingly complex array of step-parents ********** step-children. Almost before it has begun,