“Christmas Vacation”: Nostalgia, Fun, and Dark Anxiety 

There is something about preparing for Christmas that just brings out nostalgia, isn’t there? We imagine the weather being just right—chilly enough for a fire with a soft layer of snow, but without the black ice, blizzards, or power outages. We think of the perfect cozy atmosphere at home with everyone getting along, enough money in the bank for just the right gift for everyone, and plenty of time to decorate perfectly and enjoy the fruit of a year’s worth of hard work with a nice glass of eggnog or mulled wine. But too often, our dreams of Christmas cheer turn into nightmares. Consumerism presses hard upon us from without, and family rancor breaks us down from within. We long for the perfect holiday experience, but we forget that life is often a mess. Indeed, we forget it was precisely to heal…