Keatin

What is the first thing that comes to mind when thinking of winter? You and many people worldwide may think of fuzzy socks and coco, but also the most celebrated holiday worldwide, Christmas! 

There are many types of Christmas, but you can generally condense this wonderful time of year into two categories: Cozy Christmas and Cold Christmas. Cozy Christmas is winter inside, by the fireplace, eating cookies, and watching Hallmark movies all day in your pajamas. Cold Christmas is all outdoors, snowboarding, building snowmen in layers of coats, and turning blue in the cold. You might be surprised to know that when I asked twenty different people, ten Gen Z kids and ten people from older generations, the reasons for their favorite type were surprisingly similar. 

Cozy Christmas won by a landslide in the battle between Gen Z and older generations, most preferring warm Christmas indoors with holiday music playing and cookies baking in the oven. Everyone who picked the Cozy Christmas agreed that, yes, they love the outdoors and making snow angels. Still, nothing can beat the pure nostalgia while re-watching Home Alone for the hundredth time or laughing with your family while drinking hot chocolate by the fireplace at night. 

Cold Christmas might not be everyone’s preference, but those who prefer it have the same reason as those who chose a Cozy Christmas: nostalgia. Looking back to their best Christmas experiences, they remember rolling in the snow and drinking hot chocolate in the freezing weather, not even minding the temperatures because people are so consumed with joy. Looking at Christmas lights with family, making s’mores by a firepit, and running into the boiling hot tub while it’s thirty degrees Fahrenheit out are all the memories of a Cold Christmas, but only a few prefer them to the warmth of a Christmas inside. 

Everyone has different Christmas traditions and experiences, but at the end of the day, everyone’s favorite type of Christmas goes back to their memories with the people they love during this magical time of year, no matter their age.