---

🎄 Black Friday, No Christmas Tree: Growing Up in a House Where the Holidays Were “Just Another Day”

Black Friday was the only holiday my family actually prepared for — and even then, the excitement wasn’t about Christmas. It was about catching a sale, grabbing a cart before somebody’s cousin snatched it, and hoping the TVs didn’t sell out before we made it through the door.

But Christmas?

Chile… in my house, Christmas was basically December 25th with lights you saw at other people’s homes.

I liked Christmas. I loved the idea of it — the music, the movies, the pretty wrapping paper people spent too much money on. But growing up?
My mom didn’t care.
My dad really didn’t care.
And the only jingling happening was the sound of somebody shaking the car keys, ready to go to Family Dollar.

To them, Christmas was just another day with a little cold outside.
No big tree.
No stockings.
No dramatic countdown.
No cookies for Santa — because in our house, nobody was about to leave food out for a grown man who wasn’t paying bills.

Meanwhile, I was that kid sitting there like… “So nobody else feels that little Christmas magic but me?”
Apparently not.

Black Friday was the closest thing we had to a holiday tradition. We’d be up at 4 AM, not because we were full of Christmas spirit, but because those sales opened early and if you weren’t there when the doors unlocked, you might as well stay home. It was chaos, but that was our “holiday cheer.”

People running, carts crashing, babies crying, grown folks fighting over a toaster — real festive energy.

Looking back, I laugh because I get it now.
Life was life-ing.
Bills didn’t take a vacation just because Christmas was on the calendar.
And sometimes families show love in ways that don’t look like Hallmark movies — sometimes it’s buying extra groceries, paying the heat bill first, or grabbing that one thing you needed on sale during Black Friday.

But even though my parents didn’t do Christmas, I still grew up loving it.
Maybe because it felt like something soft, something warm, something hopeful.
And maybe it’s okay that Christmas meant something different to all of us.

Now, as an adult, I celebrate in my own way:
A little music, a small tree, maybe a cheap decoration or two — nothing fancy.
Just enough to remind me that I can create the holiday energy I wanted growing up.

But don’t get it twisted…
I still hit up Black Friday.
Some traditions never die.

---