Letter from the Editor
Truth is, I’m with former Scout editor Jed in being a really big Christmas person. This used to be such a sacred time of the year to me, ceremoniously ushered into sweet being by Christmas carols in all forms and genres (I prefer jazz—better smooth jazz than your bland white-bread Kenny G shit), the colder air, a ton of chocolates, and all the lights and trappings that come with it. I love it. I love it all, and I’m unashamed. (I also don’t quite understand how some people could choose Halloween to be their favorite late-year holiday, but I guess I also get the appeal of dressing up as someone/something else.)
But as most people realize, Christmas starts to feel a lot less Christmasy when you get older. Maybe it’s because adults no longer really get December as a vacation unless they go out of their way to make it one—even college kids, if they’re still on that old calendar where the second semester gets inconveniently bisected by the holidays, have to worry about requirements over the break sometimes. Christmas break used to mean lazing around in the cool weather and getting gifts and seeing all the lights; when less gets handed to you and you have to work for what you want, the holiday spirit dies a little more each year. At least, it feels that way.
The holiday spirit growing a little dimmer each year is one thing, but it’s a whole ‘nother thing for the millennial spirit, isn’t it? I think it may finally take me and everything I have to do this year to realize that hey, maybe this old, outdated wintry definition of what the holidays have to be is just that, and maybe now I have a little more power to redefine exactly what that is. I can get away from all this chaos when December rolls around and call that my holiday vacation. If Christmas doesn’t suit you anymore, then nobody’s stopping you from changing what that is in your head.
It’s something I learned our cover girl Lauren Reid (p. 26) does in our pretty lengthy conversation for this issue’s big story. Contrary to what it looks like, she never came here just to get into showbiz. It was a conscious decision she made for herself, something she feels she can pull off. And she can just as easily step out of if the circumstances say she’s done. She says she’s now in a phase of her life where she can play off spontaneity in the day-to-day and still remain in control, and it’s a useful skill I think we should all try to figure out as we go along.
So whether you’ve got the Christmas spirit or you’re still chasing it, or you ain’t ever want it in the first place, what’s important in the most wonderful time of the year is that you be happy, and you’re making everything around you work for you. Give if you can. I’ll toast a mug of hot chocolate to all of us, and all our hustling spirits.