1. For some people, giving a gift is an act of kindness. For you, it's a selfless act of sacrifice. You know you're about to go into debt to get everyone presents. You know you can survive on ramen for the next week, you're just hoping your card doesn't get declined before you check everyone off your list.
2. You didn't want to outright ask for "help paying your cable bill" as a gift, but you've got your fingers crossed for cash from everyone. Sure, you'd appreciate a new purse or a video game, but that's not going to pay your rent. You just want money so you can live comfortably. Which basically means your family is paying you for the crappy gifts you're giving them (and you make a profit).
3. Traveling home is probably going to be a nightmare. If you've moved away from home, you're probably looking at a coach flight, best-case scenario, if not a long train or … a bus ride. Holiday traveling is so bad that you'd rather get the flu and have to cancel all your plans.
4. …If you can even afford to travel home. If you're not within driving distance, you might not have the funds to ship yourself back home. That means holidays alone in a cold apartment with your own little tree, Charlie Brown Christmas-style.
5. Having to see your old "friends" when you get home. You know you're going to run into those casual acquaintances that you were more than happy to stop talking to the second you moved out of your parents' house. Maybe it's better holing up at your parents' house watching an ABC Family marathon of terrible holiday movies.
6. You spend your whole flight practicing a speech so you're prepared every time a relative asks what you're doing with your life. You've got an airtight explanation so you don't get any disapproving looks or comments about how you're not doing enough with your life. It involves a lot of lying through your teeth.
7. Watching your little cousins lose their shit over presents makes you realize how boring the holidays are now. You used to love the holidays. It's not that you don't anymore, you just need a lot of rum in your eggnog to do it. It's like watching reruns of old Real World seasons. You remember loving it, you just can't remember why.
8. Nursing your holiday hangovers. The only thing worse than nursing a hangover from a basement holiday party is nursing one when you're supposed to be having fun with your family.
9. Not getting time off work because you're pretty much at the bottom of your office hierarchy. You're working an entry-level job, or you're in retail or food service, and the holidays are your busiest time of year. While all the higher-ups get cushy vacation packages, you're stuck there plugging away on Christmas Eve, like Bob Cratchit in A Christmas Carol, or Mickey Mouse inMickey's Christmas Carol.
10. Not knowing what to get the person you're kind of seeing, maybe. You're still in that "let's not put a label on things" phase and you don't even know if they're expecting a gift. It'll be a nightmare if you get them something and they don't (or the other way around). What if you get them a silly gag gift, but they get you something serious? This could make or break your relationship-that-totally-isn't-a-relationship.
11. Figuring out how to split the three days you have off between your family and friends.You know the holidays should be a time for family, but it's not often you get all your good friends back in one place. No matter what you do, you wind up ditching someone every night and feeling terrible about it. It's basically Sophie's Choice.
12. Getting Weird Dave in your office's secret Santa. What is he into, other than always eating a cold cheese sandwich every day? The only time you ever talked to him was when he offered you a back rub in the break room that one day you complained about stress. You know what? Don't get him anything. It's just asking for trouble.
13. Representing all Millennials at the adults' table. Now that you're out of high school, you have to sit with all the other adults and explain to your Aunt Judith in painstaking detail what "selfying" is (and also that "selfying" is no the term for it).
14. Getting through day five with your parents. At first, it was great to see them and decorate the tree and feel like you're home. But by day five, they're screaming at you that you came home too late last night and it feels like you live at home all over again. Maybe you should see if you can get your flight moved up. At least knowing you don't want to ever move back home is good motivation to not get fired at work.
15. Trying to look good in a bulky winter coat. Unless you celebrate winter in Florida, you're doing all of this in a giant winter parka that doesn't look flattering at all. No matter what you wear underneath, you look like two kids in a trench coat trying to sneak into an R-rated movie.
16. Knowing you've got to do this all over again next year. You're not planning on kids any time soon, so you don't have any reasonable excuse to ditch everyone for the holidays.
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