A Strange Christmas in an Unsettled America

We are two days out from Christmas, and it does not feel like it.

If you are feeling a little down this holiday season, you are not alone. On both a local and national scale, this year’s holidays feel strained and harder to settle into. Christmas has long been the dominant holiday in the American cultural imagination. Corporations roll out glossy ad campaigns, storefronts glow with red and green, and for a brief stretch the country appears to move in sync. Even for those who do not celebrate Christmas itself, the season has traditionally carried a sense of shared pause and collective ritual.

That sense of unity has become increasingly rare. As monoculture continues to fracture and Americans struggle to feel aligned on much of anything, the holiday season has remained one of the few moments where a shared national rhythm still exists. This year, even that feels disrupted. For Coloradans especially, the season has continued a year defined by dislocation.

According to CPR, Colorado experienced its second-latest first snowfall since 1882. This December has broken multiple heat records, ranking among the warmest in state history. The familiar markers of winter are missing. There have been fewer snowy mornings, fewer opportunities for sledding, fewer moments that anchor the season in place. These changes are not flukes. Climate watchdogs have long warned that as climate change accelerates, Colorado will face worsening heat, drought, and wildfire risk. What feels unusual now is quickly becoming the new normal.

Climate change is often discussed in terms of sweeping systems and future projections, but it also produces quieter losses. Fewer white Christmases. Fewer snow days. And fewer children who will have memories of snow angels and warming cold hands around a mug of cocoa.

The broader national mood has only deepened the dampening of the holiday spirit. In the past two weeks alone, the country has watched a string of violent and disturbing events unfold. On Saturday, Brown University students Ella Cook, 19, and Mukhammad Aziz Umurzokov, 18, were killed in a mass shooting on campus that left nine others injured. Just days later, MIT physics professor Nuno F.G. Loureiro was killed at his home in Brookline, Massachusetts.

Then came the killings of filmmaker Rob Reiner and his wife, Michele, who were found stabbed to death in their Brentwood home. Their son, Nick Reiner, has been charged with two counts of murder. In response, President Donald Trump posted on Truth Social mocking Reiner’s death, suggesting it was caused by his past criticism of the president. The post drew condemnation across the political spectrum. When shown a screenshot of the post, 72 percent of Americans said it was inappropriate, while just 17 percent said it was appropriate.

Much has already been written about how the United States has entered a new era of normalized violence, both political and otherwise. Mass shootings and high-profile killings have become grim fixtures of the news cycle. Still, there is something particularly jarring about this level of brutality unfolding during a season traditionally associated with warmth, reflection, and goodwill. Rather than lowering the temperature, national leadership has often chosen to inflame it, reinforcing a sense that even the holidays are no longer insulated from political cruelty.

Economic pressure has further dampened the season. Prices continue to creep upward, making holiday shopping more difficult for families already stretched thin. Analysts predict those costs will keep rising in the year ahead. Despite repeated rhetoric about economic relief and support for working families, the numbers tell a different story.

With the country facing the strong possibility of another government shutdown, meaningful legislative intervention appears unlikely. While the holidays have never been a time when political conflict disappeared, the combination of economic strain and relentless political hostility has cast a long shadow over this year’s celebrations.

There is data to support the sense that this season feels heavier. A Gallup poll released yesterday found that just 24 percent of Americans are satisfied with the direction of the country, while nearly half describe current economic conditions as poor. Another poll suggests that this sense of political and economic doom is taking a measurable toll on Americans’ mental health. The share of people who say they are experiencing holiday season stress in America this year has risen sharply compared to last year, with much of that anxiety centered on affordability. Polls cannot capture every emotion, but they point to a public that feels anxious, strained, and worn down.

So what do we do with a holiday season that feels off-kilter?

Despite the doom and gloom, reports show that many people still experience an increase in mood during the holidays. That joy has not disappeared entirely. Coloradans do not need to turn away from the realities unfolding around them, but those realities do not need to consume every moment either. There is still joy to be found in celebrating with family and friends. Holding onto those moments may be the only way to enter the new year with any sense of steadiness at all.

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