The Holiday Season — What Ever Way Works Best for You

As the Andy Williams song goes, “It’s the holiday season / So whoop-de-do and hickory dock / And don’t forget to hang up your sock.”

This song from my childhood matches my mood and warms my soul. It brings back memories of growing up in a house full of kids, making presents for parents and cards for grandparents, and enjoying the sounds and smells of the holiday season.

In high school, I learned that not every home had a Christmas like mine. My best friend’s grandfather died in the hospital on Christmas morning when we were freshman. For her, holidays became a poignant reminder of loss. And I began to realize that some families had other celebrations, or even multiple celebrations.

I entered high school in 1967, the year after Dr. Maulana Karenga created the festival called Kwanzaa, a pan-African holiday that celebrates family, community, and culture. As time went on, I developed an appreciation of the many ways that different people mark holidays, from the winter solstice celebrations of the Wiccans in central Wisconsin to the celebration of Diwali around the world.

Here at NLM, our resources offer interesting and helpful information related to holiday seasons.

If you enter the word “Christmas” or “solstice” in our PubMed search box, you’ll retrieve over 3,000 citations. One of these is Dr. Jori Bogetz’s article in the Journal of Palliative Medicine reflecting on why she works on Christmas. An article from the British Veterinary Association describes how to choose a holiday meal that supports animal health and welfare. A third, in the Medical Journal of Australia, warns about the risks inherent in Christmas celebrations, and the journal Nature provides an unusual description of a winter solstice celebration. Some investigators sought to uncover evidence of a Christmas spirit through functional magnetic resonance imaging, while others examined the surge in myocardial infarction during certain holiday periods.

Indeed, this time of year can be complicated.

Another of NLM’s resources, MedlinePlus, provides guidance on a range of health topics — everything from managing seasonal affective disorder to encouraging healthy holiday eating to coping with sadness and grief — both for the people affected and for those around them who are wondering how to help.

In many ways, holidays allow us time to pause amid our everyday lives. Ideally, we can use the moment to be more observant and more mindful, of both ourselves and others.

I hope you find the joy and peace that the season holds, and that you extend some of that joy and peace to those around you, throughout the holidays and beyond.