This week in our Young Voices column, teenage correspondent Olivia Harris considers the meaning of Christmas to members of her age group.

With the return of the beloved Christmas market in Birmingham, the build up to Christmas this year seems a bit closer to our ‘normality’. The frantic shopping season has started, we’ve dug out the decorations, and finally broke into our advent calendars! However, with speculation continuing about how ‘normal’ our Christmas will be this year, why are we so precious about holding onto the event?

As a child, the meanings and traditions of Christmas are possibly pushed aside by the fascination of gifts and Father Christmas. Everything seems more magical and excitement is expected to fill those cold days of December. As we grow up into our teen years, religion and traditions with families and friends become that bit more special, whether it be dressing up in your favourite Christmas jumper, or watching the festive films with the Quality Street half gone.  

When most of us look back at our past Christmas’s, maybe nostalgia fills in those small hardships, and we overlook the parts that were not so magical. For many, this time of year brings up a memory that they would rather not re-live. For others, as the years pass us by, Christmas is an escape from our reality. A time of forgetting about those responsibilities, that will come back to greet us in January.

For me, what makes Christmas special (as well as tradition), is the lead up and the light-hearted buzz that gathers around us. It’s the joy that it brings to those freezing mornings travelling to college. It’s the social gatherings it creates, and the opportunities to indulge that little bit extra.

I think as we get older, Christmas becomes what you make of it, which either leads to it being the ‘most wonderful time of the year’ or the worst. Many of us hold on to the nostalgic magic that it brings, to act as a vacation from our day-to-day reality.

Does Christmas bring back your inner child, or does it make you realise how far away you are from the magic that once was?