When I was a kid, I used to get really excited about my birthday and Christmas and Easter. I would lay awake all night with excitement, listening for every sound and creeping down the hallway to see the Christmas lights shining even after everyone had gone to sleep.

I think this is typical for kids. Why does it have to go away?

The holiday season for me starts on my birthday, which was yesterday. I like to get drunk on my birthday, I suppose, because it starts the beginning of the holiday season. I don't mind the attention and I'm not nervous about getting older. The only thing that makes me nervous is that the people I really want to wish me happy birthday on Facebook won't do it.

Next comes Thanksgiving. I've always thought that holidays based around eating a lot of food were really a letdown. Sure, ostensibly the purpose of the holiday is to be around family, but practically it's about eating a monster-sized bird. When that bird is finished, my family always wants to play board games and try to stay awake as the tryptophan sets in.

After Thanksgiving, Christmas always seems like it comes too soon. I feel inadequate for not decorating the tree just after Halloween rounds the bend, but I don't anyway. I try to pull together enough gifts for all of my friends and family, and I dream about mailing out Christmas cards. There's so much required for Christmas time--the carols and the church, the decorating and the gift-buying--it's sort of exhausting.

By the time New Year's rolls around, I think most people are ready to have a holiday during which all they're supposed to do is drink.

I understand the need for holidays. People need federally and religiously-sanctioned days to break up the typical flow of their lives. But I never feel like I am behaving like I should be for these special occasions. I feel tired most of the time, and I often wish that I didn't need a special occasion and gifts and snow to want to see my family.

I wish I could be excited about holidays again, but I don't know how. My sneaking suspicion is that most people feel the way I do--they remember when holidays were the best thing in the world and they continue celebrating their memories. That's the definition of "tradition," isn't it?