Free-Writing: An event or the way you have celebrated Christmas\New Year

December has always had some kind of magic to it. When the calender pages turned to december, the
only thing I could see was only 31 days of “New Year preparations and excitement”. I am not able to
describe what I felt everytime our Christmas tree was taken out from the place it had been hidden for so
long. Always covered in dust, its branches stuck in pieces of paper or duct tape, but it still was one of a
kind to me. Let’s not forget about the ornaments, small, colourful globes, shiny raindeers, angels, tiny
and cute teddys or ribbons hanging there and swinging everytime the tree was touched by the kids. I
know that for everyone the star at the top was the main character in the whole scene, but the lights
were to me the final touch of this fairytale. I admired how their shine was so bright and lively, but at the
same time it wasn’t easy to distinguish the lights. This was for me back then one of the things that gave
life to the New Year’s spirit. My afternoons consisted of watching an endless number of Christmas
movies, cartoons and for some reason I always got emotional when they turned back to normal and I
didn’t see the santa claus popping out at the corner of the screen anymore. New Year can not be New
Year without the traditional Albanian dishes and let’s not mention the desserts and all the sweets, I
couldn’t get enough of, and still can’t because my love for sweets is never going to come to an end. Our
city was never the kind of city that was beautified massively with giant, expensive Christmas
decorations. However every little detail was enough for me and I felt content. On New Years eve we
would spend time together, watch TV, eat a lot, laugh at our own jokes and enjoy each-others company
like we couldn’t do on a daily basis. New Year brought us always together, and made me feel a bond that
seemed to hide on normal days. I have cherished all these, not as a feast, not as a celebration but as
something that has much more power over humanity and the way people feel about each-other. I have
to be honest with myself though. I do not feel the same and it has been like this for more than a couple
of years. That is why I described my previous New Years and not the last ones, where I am just happy to
get it over with and jump onto the next year. This enormous wave of disappointment takes over me
every time I compare how it was and how it actually is. It seems like these kind of things that made
people reveal their pure and beautiful emotions, have lost their power and value throughout the years.
At least there are always memories left as a reminder of something that once was sublime.