Honors College Art & Science of Emotions Fall 2017 (1:20 p.m.) Sadness Journal | Page 10

ing the holidays are also common. Fights will just end up making everyone involved feel sad, especially
fights that happen during the holidays since everyone is supposed to be happy.
Another source of sadness on the holidays is the practice of gift-giving. Giving gifts is supposed to
make people happy. It rarely has this effect. Giving gifts is stressful and it’s turns into a competition. You
want to give someone the best gift, or something they’ve ‘always wanted’. When the person receiving the
gift is left disappointed, the person giving the gift is also disappointed. This is one of the biggest sources of
sadness on Christmas. Giving gifts is marketed about showing love and creating happiness. In reality, giv-
ing gifts is about preventing sadness, instead of creating happiness. I believe that there is a difference be-
tween doing something to make someone happy versus doing something to make sure someone isn’t sad.
If someone is expecting a gift and they don’t get one, that is going to make them sad. If someone isn’t ex-
pecting a gift but does get one, they’re going to be happy because the expectation of a gift was never pre-
sent. On Christmas, everyone is expecting a gift, which means you’re giving a gift to prevent them from
“In reality, giving gifts is about
preventing sadness, instead
of creating happiness.”
being sad. This isn’t the way it should be, but it is the way
that is has become. Children always want to get the best
gifts. They compare their gifts against what their friends
received. If their gift isn’t as good as their friend’s gift, they’re going to become sad, which is going to
make their parents sad. One time on Christmas I received 10 pairs of socks. I was young and I had an abso-
lute meltdown. I went into my room and started crying. This caused my mom to cry and then lo’ and be-
hold Christmas was ruined. Everyone was sad, all because of gifts. If there was no expectation to receive a
gift, there wouldn’t be any sadness when you don’t receive one.
Not having enough money during the holidays is another source of sadness. Not being able to ex-
change gifts with your family or not being able to have a holiday dinner causes people to feel left-out of the
holiday season. A lot of families spend a lot of money traveling to see family, and if you have no money,
10.