SAD, But For The Holidays
Posted by terrepruitt on January 2, 2025
Many of you may have heard of SAD, I posted about it in February of 2012. According to the Mayo Clinic’s website “Seasonal affective disorder (SAD) is a type of depression that’s related to changes in seasons — seasonal affective disorder (SAD) begins and ends at about the same times every year. If you’re like most people with SAD, your symptoms start in the fall and continue into the winter months, sapping your energy and making you feel moody.” If you have wintertime SAD the symptoms usually disappear in the spring.
I have a different kind of SAD, I love winter so it is not a depression of the CHANGING of the season, it is the ENDING of the HOLIDAY season. I get sad when it ends. I love all the decorations, I get sad when I have to take my Christmas decorations down and pack them away for another year. It is a bummer when we don’t have fun Christmas lights to light up the living space. I think that is one reason I like to keep “Christmas” up as long as possible. I miss the decorations and what goes along with them—the festive feelings. To me it seems like a collective vibe. People are anticipating parties and time off, and when it is over, it is as if the energy goes down.
I feel the same way when local sporting teams are in a championship game. I don’t care about sports at all, but when a local team is going to a game of all games the city seems alive with positive energy. And when they lose it is like a blanket over things.
So, I think I have a form of SAD . . . but for the Holidays. My SAD can be helped by keeping Christmas decorations up, but I still miss the collective energy.
What about you? How do you feel about taking things down?
Terre Pruitt's Blog 
New England Nomad said
I have the same feelings of sadness after the holidays. I feel deflated! All those happy fun times seem to end so abruptly. Plus, there really aren’t any big holidays or warm weather to look forward to for quite some time.
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terrepruitt said
DEFLATED, that is a great word for it. Thank you. They do seem to end so abruptly! I agree with the big holidays, but not the warm weather. I never look forward to warm weather. You had me 100% until the warm weather! 🙂 Thank you for sharing a shared sense of SAD.
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New England Nomad said
Well, 2 out of 3 isn’t too bad! I would also add the long dark nights as another reason to be sad! I love feeling of the sun!
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terrepruitt said
Well, we live in very different areas. I was just dancing around my living room with joy because it has been so dark and cloudy and I love it!! I am able to have on all the Christmas Decoration lights on all day! It is fabulous! I think I am a mushroom as I like the dark! 🙂 (Or maybe a vampire!)
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Frank Hubeny said
I don’t have any seasonal affective disorder, but I am glad to hear that people feel sad (perhaps a sense of melancholy is a better way to put it) about taking down Christmas decorations. That doesn’t seem like a disorder.
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terrepruitt said
No, not for me. Wanting to be certain, I looked up “melancholy” and, no, I don’t have “a feeling of pensive sadness, typically with no obvious cause.” Or something else said: “Being melancholy means that you’re overcome in sorrow, wrapped up in sorrowful thoughts”. I’m just sad because I will miss the glitter and glitz and the positive vibes that come with the entire Holiday Season. The post was meant to be funny because people experience SAD because of the weather/winter season but I LOVE the weather/winter season, but I do get sad/unhappy every after-Christmas, so the joke is that it can be considered a “disorder”. :-). But the actually SAD can be a serious depression, so it is good if people are aware if they have it and can take steps to mitigate it. You are fortunate that you don’t get SAD.
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