Canceled Christmas –- When the Holidays Stop Being Fun

Canceled Christmas –- When the Holidays Stop Being Fun

http://youthoutlook.org/news/view_article.html?article_id=ad8e0244f9ce4e005b1cfe...


Editor's Note: At some point in everyone’s life the fantasy of the winter holidays begins to fade into a cold reality and Christmas loses its luster. The young people at YO! share their experiences during the holidays, from getting locked up on Christmas eve to trying extra hard to give their kids the perfect holiday.



Celebrating the Holidays with My New Family

The only thing I could say that would make Christmas not fun for me would be trying to go out on Christmas and attempting to actually have fun, and knowing that when I fall asleep on Christmas eve that I won’t be able to wake up hearing my little siblings making loud noises or smell my moms big Christmas breakfast.

I remember I used to get out of the bed smelling the taste of her homemade biscuits with Ms. Butterworth’s syrup, pancakes, grits, scrambled eggs, sausage links and sausage patties, and at the same time I could still smell the Christmas dinner being prepared.

When I get dressed on that dreadful morning it’s going to be extremely hard for me to walk out side with a sarcastic smile on my face. Because just knowing that I’m going to see friends that are going to play show and tell with me, and I’m going to have to pretend that I’m happy for them when secretly I’m not.

I also know that when I walk to into Larkin Streets Drop Inn Center for X-Mas dinner I will understand that me and all those other people will become a family. At that moment all we will have is each other. We will all become close like a family, and sit at the dinner table like a family, and become excited about the cheap donated presents they will give us. We accepting that when dinner is over we all leave. What makes it not fun is knowing that they weren’t really my family, but I enjoyed my time with them as if they were.

-- Buffie Ephrian



Vlog by: Harris Cox Jr., Sean Shaver and Jaquan Rushing



Christmas is Nothing Without My Freedom

My family wasn’t the richest on the block, but during this holiday it always seemed as if we were. All the kids in my neighborhood would wander the streets of Oakland showing off their new gear, toys and shoes. Christmas was always a day that seemed like everyone’s birthday.

There is a old saying stating: if you are bad, then Santa will leave a piece of coal in your stocking instead of the items you wish for. Eventually, I got a little older and began to act out more on the streets and in school. I never received coal as a consequence, however I did receive a cold wake up call one year when I had to spent Thanksgiving and Christmas in juvenile hall.

This is when Christmas stopped being fun. I realized that whatever decisions I make, I would have to suffer the consequences by myself and the world will go on with or without me learning. Fun is okay, but fun got me locked up. Christmas, my birthday and New Years: all spent in a cold cell thinking about getting out.

Ever since that year I spent in juvie for the holidays Christmas wasn’t fun for me anymore but I learned the importance of family. Fun is a word from my past when it comes to Christmas. My current word regarding the holidays is: thankful. I’m thankful to be in control of my life and to be around family, comfort and laughter. This is worth way more than any toy or shoes or whatever.

This was the year I realized that I was growing up. I have to take care of the children in the family like the grown people took care of us when we were little. Of course I still get gifts but truthfully, no gift in the world can give me a feeling of just being with my family. Christmas is nothing without my freedom.

-- Kalei Meyers