There is a lot of pressure to make the holidays perfect. Images on TV, memories from your childhood and holiday cards all paint the picture of a cheerful, joyous, loving time of year. But in reality, that isn’t always the case. Dr. Mark Sichel, psychiatrist and author of Healing From Family Rifts, explains “people have this anticipation or fantasy of the holiday that you would see on TV,” but in reality “it’s never exactly as people anticipate and it’s often disappointing. There’s often strife within families that comes out at holiday times.”
