December 13, 2025
Some days, the Thought of the Day and Question of the Day feel like they were made for each other. Today is one of those days. Between a thought about losing your mind and a question about refusing to rewatch a so-called holiday classic, this post wanders into familiar December territory: overstimulation, tradition fatigue, and the quiet realization that you’re allowed to opt out without filing a formal explanation.
This one’s about giving yourself permission. Permission to laugh at your own unraveling. Permission to skip the movie everyone insists you must love. Permission to enjoy the season on your own terms.
Thought of the Day
“The next time I lose my mind, I swear I’m not even going to look for it.”
There’s something deeply comforting about this thought, especially in December.
December is loud. It’s bright. It’s crowded. It’s filled with expectations layered on top of expectations like an aggressively frosted cake. Somewhere between the shopping lists, school concerts, year-end deadlines, and trying to remember if the cat has been fed, it’s easy to feel like your mind has slipped out the back door without telling you.
And you know what? That’s fine.
I love the idea baked into this thought: the next time I lose my mind, I’m not going to panic about it. I’m not going to retrace my steps like I dropped my keys in a parking lot. I’m not going to spiral into self-judgment or dramatic self-diagnosis. I’m just going to shrug and say, “Yeah, that tracks.”
There’s freedom in not trying to immediately fix yourself.
We spend a lot of time acting like losing our minds is a failure state. Like calm is the default and chaos is a malfunction. But if you’re alive, paying attention, and trying to juggle a life with other people in it, then losing your mind from time to time is not a bug. It’s a feature.
December has a way of exposing that. The season doesn’t just test your patience. It tests your tolerance for noise, repetition, and traditions that no longer fit the version of you that exists right now.
Not looking for your mind doesn’t mean you don’t care. It means you trust that it’ll come back when it’s ready. Probably after things quiet down. Probably after the sugar crash. Definitely after the holidays.
If this thought resonates, you’ll find more daily reflections like it in the full Thought of the Day archive, where losing your mind is treated less like an emergency and more like a shared human experience.
Question of the Day
What holiday movie do you refuse to watch, no matter how many times people insist it’s a “classic”?
Let’s get this out of the way.
Mine is A Christmas Story.
Here’s the thing: it’s not that I haven’t watched it. I have. I understand the cultural significance. I know the quotes. I’m aware of the leg lamp and the tongue and the BB gun and all of it.
But the idea that it needs to be on a 24-hour loop every December feels… aggressive.
For me, A Christmas Story is like fruitcake. Once every few years? Fine. Maybe even enjoyable. But annually? Repeatedly? As background noise in every room of the house? Absolutely not.
And that’s kind of the point of this question.
Holiday classics have a weird social pressure attached to them. There’s an unspoken rule that if something is labeled “classic,” you’re supposed to love it. Or at least tolerate it politely. Refusing to watch it feels like you’re rejecting the season itself.
But taste changes. Context changes. And sometimes the thing you loved as a kid just doesn’t hit the same when you’re tired, overstimulated, and trying to enjoy a rare moment of quiet.
This question isn’t really about movies. It’s about boundaries disguised as preferences.
It’s about admitting that you don’t need to participate in every tradition just because it exists. You don’t owe your time to a VHS-era standard. You’re allowed to say, “Not this year,” or “Not again,” or even “Never, thanks.”
The best part? Everyone has an answer to this question. And everyone’s answer reveals something about how they experience the holidays. Nostalgia lovers. Contrarians. Exhausted parents. People who will defend Die Hard until the bitter end.
If you want to see how questions like this open up unexpected conversations, take a stroll through the Question of the Day archive. It’s a reminder that the simplest questions often lead to the most honest answers.
Join the conversation
So now it’s your turn.
What holiday movie do you refuse to watch, no matter how many times someone insists it’s a classic? And when your mind goes missing this season, are you still trying to chase it down, or are you letting it take the night off?
Leave a comment and join the conversation. And if you want a daily Thought of the Day and Question of the Day delivered straight to your inbox, you can join the daily email here. No pressure. No guilt. No required movie marathons.
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