There’s a reason December is packed with cozy dinners with friends, family, and loved ones. There’s Sinterklaas, boozy Christmas parties with colleagues, Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, Boxing Day, breakfasts, lunches, more dinners, New Year’s Eve, New Year’s hangover… It’s maddening, when you think of it, and I often wonder why we put ourselves through it all.
But then I realised that it’s even more maddening not to keep ourselves busy with all those people, the mounds of food, and the gallons of drinks. The days are getting shorter, and we need all the distraction we can get to help us survive them. The sun only appears when we’re already at work, and has left us again before we’re allowed to go home. The sun doesn’t tire itself in winter; no, it knows better than that. But us human beings? We are doomed. We are exhausted but keep working, and there’s no daylight to help us improve our mood. Even the blue lights on the screens we so obsessively check do nothing to make us feel better. And when we look up from them, it’s dark outside. Again.
And this is why we need to indulge ourselves in winter. We’re rapidly moving towards the shortest day and the longest nights, and we try to forget that by talking to people, by wolfing down food, and by sipping, sipping, sipping our drinks. When we’ve finally recovered, two weeks into January, right after we’ve survived Blue Monday, we’ll realise that we’re well on our way towards spring. And that’s when we can finally breathe out, relax, and focus on the good times that lie ahead.
Let’s just admit it: in December, we are sad, pitiful beings. But there’s others who need our pity even more.
In the Southern hemisphere, December is in summer, which means people can be outside until late at night, enjoying Christmas with their in-laws. But in June, their winter, when it’s getting colder and darker, there’s not a single holiday left. That means those poor Southeners have to get through that cold and dark June without any of the distractions we do have to help us survive our cold December. The only thing they’ve got is the Winter Solstice, the shortest day, which announces that everything will get better from then on.
I hereby suggest rebranding their Winter Solstice and change it to All Sads’ Day. Out of solidarity to all Southeners.
– Ynze van der Spek, 27 December 2025 (translated by me)
The Open Book 