Lubbock Christmas doesn\u2019t usually come with snowbanks or frozen eyelashes. Most years, it comes with mild weather, confused outfits, and at least one day that feels suspiciously like spring.\u00a0 And somehow\u2026it still feels cozy.<\/p>\n
Photo by Clay Banks<\/a> on Unsplash<\/a><\/p>\n I know this because I\u2019ve spent about a dozen Christmases in Minnesota, where Christmas looks exactly like the movies. Snow everywhere. Real fireplaces. That quiet, postcard-perfect kind of cold. And I was miserable. I was alone for many of them. Some I spent divorced. Others, I spent so broke I was surviving on condiments from the fridge and pretending that was a \u201cmeal.\u201d It turns out snow and candles don\u2019t mean much when you don\u2019t have anyone to share them with.<\/p>\n Photo by Sasha Freemind<\/a> on Unsplash<\/a><\/p>\n That\u2019s something Lubbock quietly understands. Christmas here isn\u2019t about aesthetics. It\u2019s about proximity. It\u2019s about people. It\u2019s about familiarity. You don\u2019t need a white Christmas when you\u2019ve got someone sitting next to you on the couch, even if the thermostat is set aggressively wrong.<\/p>\n Photo by Myles Bloomfield<\/a> on Unsplash<\/a><\/p>\n Over the years, I\u2019ve learned that Christmas really has nothing to do with presents, or perfection, or even the big ideas we\u2019re told it\u2019s supposed to represent. Cozy doesn\u2019t come from gifts or traditions you force yourself to endure. Cozy comes from being surrounded by people you actually love…or sometimes just the person you love. Honestly, some of my best Christmases were spent curled up on the couch alone with my cats, watching my favorite childhood holiday movies.<\/p>\n Photo by Alisa Anton<\/a> on Unsplash<\/a><\/p>\n Personally, I prefer quiet holidays. One person. A boyfriend. Or a small group of friends who feel like chosen family. I\u2019ve learned I don\u2019t need chaos to feel festive. In fact, my actual family makes me feel the opposite of jolly, and that\u2019s okay to admit. I don’t leave their house feeling warm and fuzzy. I typically leave feeling like I don’t belong anywhere at all. That’s not any way to spend the holiday. I don’t care what anyone says.<\/p>\n Photo by Marco Bianchetti<\/a> on Unsplash<\/a><\/p>\n Lubbock Christmas feels cozy, not because it\u2019s cold, but because it\u2019s flexible. It lets you define warmth your own way. And sometimes, that\u2019s the most comforting thing of all.<\/p>\n Where to Find Lubbock\u2019s Coziest & Most Comforting Cold-Weather Eats<\/p>\n Gallery Credit: Renee Raven<\/p>\n Never Grow Up: A Peek At Lubbock’s New Toy R Us Location <\/p>\n Lubbock is home to a new Toys ‘R Us pop-up inside South Plains Mall <\/p>\n Gallery Credit: Renee Raven<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Lubbock Christmas doesn\u2019t usually come with snowbanks or frozen eyelashes. Most years, it comes with mild weather, confused…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":90175,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[168,170,169],"class_list":{"0":"post-90395","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-lubbock","8":"tag-lubbock","9":"tag-lubbock-headlines","10":"tag-lubbock-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90395","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=90395"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90395\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/90175"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=90395"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=90395"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=90395"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}