I love the holiday season, starting with Halloween! After my birthday in August is over, every year since childhood I could just feel the excitement building. It plateaus at Thanksgiving, remains in climax through the Christmas season, and then plummets until New Years, where it's dead again. And then post-holiday depression settles in. As for the music, I've always loved it though there are a handful of songs I wouldn't mind EVER hearing again because they've been way too overplayed the last decade or so.
It's been changing the last few years of working in a boarding kennel though, as Thanksgiving and Christmas are our busiest times of year, and we have blackout periods for vacation time. I have no family living 100 miles of me, so unless I get another job, I'm doomed to spend them alone or be a charity case for my local friends for the foreseeable future.
And at work... nnnnnnggggggg, don't get me started. We're always way understaffed for the volume we get, the poor animals are grossly neglected; cold, lonely, dirty, depressed, bored, sometimes they get sick. The facility gets super dirty, seriously gross and smelly, and disorganized because cleaning falls to the bottom of the priority list due to lack of personnel and time. Those with the power to make a difference care more about the money, power, and policies than the animals, and those of us who do care heaps for the animals are left completely powerless because we just don't have enough time or help to care for the animals efficiently. It breaks my heart every year, and has taken a toll on how I perceive the holidays since working there. Not saying all boarding kennels are this bad, my company is just corrupt. Just please, PLEASE, if you ever consider boarding your pets during a super busy time like the Christmas season, be really careful where you bring them.