"I want to collapse without strength more than to eat and drink." Why there is no New Year mood and what to do about it

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2024-01-13 00:26

Bringing back the magic isn't that hard. Sometimes it's enough to just exhale and stop the holiday race.

This article is part of the Auto-da-fe project. In it, we declare war on everything that prevents people from living and becoming better: breaking laws, believing in nonsense, deceit and fraud. If you've come across a similar experience, share your stories in the comments.

Who and what is stealing the New Year's mood

Marketers

Preparing for the New Year opens up tremendous earning opportunities for shops. People will buy gifts, outfits, groceries, holiday paraphernalia. And the more time you give them, the more they will spend. Therefore, garlands and balls appear everywhere in early November, as soon as the Halloween pumpkins are removed from the stands.

As a result, we start thinking about the New Year in two months. And this is quite a job - to scroll in my head what to buy and where to go, make lists, involve household members in all this.

Preparing for the New Year has gone from a sprint to a marathon.

Instead of quickly and joyfully running the pre-holiday distance and bursting into New Year's Eve at the moment of the highest inspiration, you run to the finish line solely on your moral and strong-willed. My legs are worn out, I have no strength, and I want to collapse without strength more than to eat and drink.

The peak of New Year's mood is in mid-late November. By the beginning to mid-December, you will already be tired, and in the remaining weeks you will dream of giving up everything and evacuating to a desert island - away from discounts, promotions and parties.

Traditions

New Year is the main Russian holiday. Such a conclusion can be made at least by the number of days off that he is surrounded by. And although it has been widely celebrated in our country for only about 100 years, during this time a clear idea of who should do what has been formed. And it is not so easy to deviate from tradition.

Take a feast, for example. It's not that the festive nightlife is good for the body. And it’s dangerous to eat up last year’s salads that were outside the refrigerator all night for a whole week. But the table must be bursting with food, whatever the cost. And traditionally it is impossible to do with simple dishes. Some of them - like jellied meat - need to be worked on for more than one day. As a result, cooking takes a lot of money, time and effort.

In the Tomsk region, December 31 was even made a day off "at the numerous requests of women, on whose shoulders the main burden of preparing for the New Year's holiday usually lies." 84% of Russians supported the postponement of the working day to Saturday before the New Year. The motivation is the same: "For the holiday you need to prepare the table and approach by midnight not tired, but cheerful."

People ask for a day off solely in order to be less bored.

Although it is not at all necessary to be a hero. Almost any conditionally New Year's dish can be eaten all year round (pancakes - not only for Shrovetide, and muffins with a white cap - not only for Easter).

If you follow all the traditions, because you have to, and not because you want to, you can get pretty tired. The saddest thing is that your reactions are not always easy to track. You seem to be doing everything as usual, but there is no New Year mood. And all because there is no anticipation of the holiday. The only thing left is the desire to survive this and, finally, to have a rest on January 1.

Deadlines

December 31 ends not only the calendar year, but also the financial one. Some people master budgets, others make preparations for reports, still others are actively selling goods, still others come up with advertisements for them, and still others are preparing to take tests and exams. In general, for many, working in December, as one internet joke said, is the same as riding a bike that burns and you burn and everything burns and you are in hell.

And it seems like it would be great to watch New Year's films, decorate the house, take pictures with a garland. Only when to do all this? In the evening you come home and fall face down in the pillow - that's all the preparation for the holiday.

Deceived expectations

And for dessert, the main problem, because of which you do not have a New Year's mood. It is very easy to track it on the posts flooding the Internet with something like this: “I want it already on December 31st. Drifts outside the window. Mom cuts Olivier in the kitchen, dad left for the tree. And I'm five, I draw cards with snowflakes for them and I believe in miracles. New Year's mood is always associated with childhood. And this is not at all because it was better before.

In the past, a lot of people spent a lot of energy to arrange a holiday for you. And you sat and drew snowflakes.

But now you're the mom who cuts the salad instead of lying down. And that dad who went into a snowstorm behind a Christmas tree, because where else to put gifts for the child. Even if you have no children, you have grown up. As before, it will never be again.

This is neither good nor bad, but simply inevitable. There are many advantages in adulthood, and one of them is that you yourself can give yourself any holiday. Unless, of course, you stop looking back into the past and think that someone should create it for you.

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How to return the New Year mood

The Internet is replete with tips to listen to New Year's music, watch movies, walk the streets with festive illumination. And all this works, if in a hurry you did not see that December has already come. But what if the eye twitches from the song Jingle Bells? If you want to go to deep forests until mid-January, because all people can talk about is who will wear what and where will they celebrate? In this case, it is necessary to resolve the issue much more radically.

Give yourself permission to celebrate in your own way

Sounds easy. But in fact, observing all the traditions of preparing for the New Year may be easier than allowing yourself not to participate in the process. To do this, you have to delve into yourself and get rid of the guilt that everyone around is cutting salads, and you, say, are playing an online game.

There is no one sure way to celebrate the New Year.

It is not necessary to set a table of 500 dishes, call with congratulations, answer "Happy Holidays too!" for every flickering postcard in the chat, spend a lot of money on an expensive outfit, drink champagne. And you don't even have to sleep until midnight.

If you are happy with the idea of celebrating on the couch with a bowl of chips and your favorite TV show on your laptop, so be it. The proverb "As you meet the New Year, so you will spend it" exists only in our heads. But even if that weren't the case, the couch and the TV series are a far more winning plan for the next 12 months than celebrating under a stick. It is necessary not only to settle this thought in your head, but also to give yourself time to experience it and come to terms with it: you can celebrate as you like.

It works the other way too. If you want a bowl of Olivier, a box of champagne, wild fun in a big company until the morning - you are welcome. You should not be stopped by the comments of those who do not like these traditions. Just celebrate separately with them, even if it comes to close relatives. Yes, that is also possible.

Make your inner child happy

As we have already found out, many have lost the New Year's mood in deep childhood, and for some reason are looking for it in other places. And here it would be correct to recall the words of almost any average mother: "Where I left, there it lies!"

To return the New Year's mood, turn to the child within yourself, find out what he needs. Look into childhood not with thoughts, how good it was before, but constructively. Understand what made you happy then.

Maybe you don't need to plan a club party and go shopping. Instead, you will make a snow angel in a snowdrift and read a children's book with which you associate pure happiness. Let it be stupid and non-status entertainment, but so what.

You can't be too old for joy and fun.

Find your traditions

Traditions themselves are good for the mood. From year to year, repetitive actions evoke certain feelings in us. But it happens that generally accepted things do not work for you, you have bad associations with them.

Discard what is annoying and come up with your own traditions. Even if they look strange from the outside. For example, there are people who, before the New Year (and only then), watch not "Irony of Fate", but "Alien vs. Predator." It just happened by coincidence: once they turned it on by accident, and they liked it. Now the film is associated with the holiday and adjusts to the desired mood.

Order everything with delivery

If you don't want to hustle in lines, use technological advances. You can order everything online - from gifts to groceries. Some services will even think over the New Year's menu for you.

Keep in mind: before the holidays it is better to order directly at home. Otherwise, you just change the store lines to the crowd at the pick-up points.

Treat gifts carefully

Another greeting from childhood is the expectation of a miracle. It is unlikely that you found a letter from Santa Claus under the Christmas tree: "Here's the money, buy what you want." There was always a gift, and often it was exactly what you wanted.

Take care of your loved ones. Listen to their desires, give what will please them. Emotions from choosing and buying presents can be very pleasant, if you approach this with a soul.

You won't be able to make a surprise for yourself, but a good gift is quite. Take the opportunity.

Relax

There is no New Year's mood, well, just think. 7, 6 billion people cannot be equally happy on a particular day. And it is certainly impossible to be joyful every day for more than a month. Nothing criminal will happen if December 31 is an ordinary day for you.