Merry Christmas! I Got You…

A Breakup

                        Its Christmas time and you know what that means: Christmas Movies! One of my favorite holiday past times is cuddling up next to a warm fire with a mug of hot cocoa and watching the premiere of the newest holiday movie on the Hallmark Channel. The movies are always so happy and a great way to get in the mood for the season: beautiful displays of decorations, the fluffy white snow that just so happens to fall on Christmas Eve night, and the fairytale romances that hold the plot together. As soon as the credits start rolling, however, so do my tears. In all the holiday movies, I can’t help but notice how they all end with the couples getting their happy ending.

As the saying goes, “You never know what you have until it’s gone.” Around the holiday season especially, this saying seems to hold true for quite a few people. In the past few weeks, more and more of the people I know seem to be coming out of relationships, dealing with the confusion of a not-so-in-the-past ex, or trying their hardest to make their relationship last through one more night. We, as humans, are naturally going to take things for granted in our lives and one day wish that we’d done things a little differently. However, being as we are humans and have fully functional rational minds, we have the chance to really take this holiday season to heart and start learning a lesson or two from these classic holiday movies.

Ever since the very first Christmas, the holiday season was meant to be a time to give thanks, make peace, and to cherish loved ones. Over the years though, it seems as if more and more people are drifting away from that and onto the practical aspects of the holidays. Each day, our society is becoming more materialistic and it really starts to affect our personal relationships whether it be a breakup, realizing they’re no longer the one, or not showing them that you care, especially around Christmastime. But that, my friend, is what holiday movies are for: getting us in the spirit and sparking our minds with wonderful ideas for not only decorating and values, but for relationships too.

 Ironically enough, actually the holidays seem to be the time where a lot of couples start their not so happy endings. Granted, people grow apart, couples fight, and relationships end all the time but there seems to be something about the holiday season that makes breaking up with your girlfriend two days after Thanksgiving seem like the perfect early Christmas gift. The holiday season is supposed to be a time where we are remembering and cherishing the things that we are grateful for in our lives, not looking at your relationship issues aand ending things completely.

            Whether it’s a romantic carriage ride in the moonlight, a dozen white roses, or just simply a love letter, the couples on these jolly holiday flicks are constantly showing each other how much they care. Well, wakeup and smell the freshly brewed, peppermint flavored coffee people, and take a hint or two of what these little gestures do for their relationships! Even the smallest thing to show you care can make the difference between the drifting apart and the happily ever after of your relationship. If more people took the time to show their significant other that they really do care, we’d possibly have a lot less of the “It’s been a long time coming…”s and more “I love you "s which should come in to practice a lot around this time of year.

            An equally heartbreaking event that doesn’t so much fit with the holiday spirit is a good old holiday breakup. I mean really, who doesn’t just love a text explaining how things just “aren’t working out” while you’re in the midst of all the holiday shopping and preparation? I don’t know what it is about the sparkling lights and pretty green trees, but it seems to be (maybe in a jerk’s delusional mind) the perfect setting for a breakup. If you think about all the classic holiday movie favorites, you can bet your heart that none of those happy endings are a result of a “It’s not you, it’s me” line. Although these movies are not completely realistic one hundred percent of the time, if all of the possible “dumpers” out there sat down and watched one or two and got into the holiday spirit, maybe they’d think twice before ending it all and ( at the very least!) wait until after the holidays.

            So whether you’re in a nasty argument with your boyfriend, thinking about how to let her down easily, or pathetically waiting for your ex to realize his mistake, maybe you’d benefit by flipping over to Hallmark and cozying up with a romantic Christmas movie. Watch closely how the couples of these winter wonderland love stories deal with every aspect of their relationships. Take some tips, get in the holiday spirit, and don’t be the one who’s translation of the words “Merry Christmas” are “It’s over.”

By: Candace Boehm