The holidays feel just a little off for us this year.
It’s our little family’s first holiday season since the divorce, and if I’m being honest, we don’t really know what we’re doing yet or quite how to spend time together in this new dimension.
But you know who does know how to spend the holidays? The Duffer Brothers, creators of one of our favorite shows ever, Stranger Things.
They scheduled the Netflix release of their final epic season to coincide with three major mainstream holidays closing out this year: the first four episodes on Thanksgiving Eve, the next three episodes on Christmas and the show’s final, legendary farewell episode on New Year’s Eve 2025.
The Stranger Things complete takeover of the 2025 holiday season is pure, absolute genius – and feels like a personal gift made just for us.
This show has been consistently excellent and raising the bar every season for almost ten years. The cast, crew and all involved deserve every possible eyeball on their final magnum opus. Stranger Things has always been about the power of friendship and about oddballs coming together to make magic happen. Maybe the Duffer Brothers know a thing or two about how the holidays are not always a perfectly magical time for everyone – and they wanted to share some of their own unique magic.
Honestly, what could be a stranger thing than muddling through the major holidays after a divorce? The timing of having season 5’s huge premiere now could not be better for us, personally.
Z and I have been massive fans of Stranger Things for years. Because it started out as more of a kids’ adventure show with a few dark thrills, I felt comfortable letting a younger Z watch the first two seasons… and by the time she was old enough to handle some real horror, the show let loose in season 3 and went full-on into the dark territory in which it now resides.
Stranger Things has been a perfect show for us to watch together during Z’s middle and high school years, and it’s a delightful distraction for us during this strange 2025 holiday season. Nothing turns your world more upside-down than a world-splitting divorce.
To prepare ourselves for the final season, Z and I engaged in the ultimate marathon ST rewatch leading up to the holidays. Over the span of multiple weeks, we made our way through seasons 1, 2, 3 and 4. I’m so glad we did this, because it felt great going into season 5 with all of that fresh in my mind. After all, season 4 debuted back in the summer of 2022 – that’s a long time ago!
Now, Thanksgiving is behind us and we’re finally here – in the midst of the most legendary and cinematic season of Stranger Things yet. I’ve been utterly blown away by the first four episodes of season 5. Each episode truly feels like a feature film in terms of the story quality, writing, cinematography, acting, CGI, sound, music and scope. Watch it on the biggest screen you can, friends – it’s truly epic.
If the first “volume” of season 5 was this incredible, I can hardly wait for the Christmas and NYE installments. And no matter what our personal holiday plans entail, I know that we’ll also have the immense pleasure of watching new episodes of our favorite show together – one last time.
Now that’s a recipe for happy holidays!
