The Ghost of Christmas Never: If Christmas did not seem right or complete this year, when did it, and what would it have taken to make it so?

Traditionally, I have loved everything about the season. But this year, I feel like I just kind of missed it. And I am not alone: a lot of people have told me they felt the same way, especially this year.

Then again, every year, I think I feel this way. Maybe I am idealizing something in the past, or have subtle expectations for better times in the ineffable future. Right now, however, money and time were short. Everything just seemed cliche’ and too familiar.

Way back in my mid teens, when Christmas first started to lose its luster, I dubbed this feeling as being haunted by the Ghost of Christmas Never. Its not of the past or future. Its sensing that a more perfect holiday season should or could be in the future, but the season never lives up to our hopes, dreams, and expectations.

I am not sure if I got that term, the Ghost of Christmas Never as something I made up or if I picked it up elsewhere. Sometimes, it feels forlorn and melancholy. Other times, I just feel nothing and kind of ignore it and hope one day things will seem more like Christmas than they do now,

What was an ideal Christmas for you, and what are you hoping it could be someday? If something was incomplete this year, what would have made the season nearer to what you wanted it to be?