The holiday season is here! It’s both exciting and stressful, so let these comforting words of wisdom from 2024 K-dramas help you to manage the holiday stress that comes with these celebrations.

When it comes to the holidays, there’s always a thin line between feeling excited and feeling stressed. So to prevent us from falling to the latter feeling, we at Cherry Chu have decided to list some of the comforting words of wisdom from 2024 K-dramas so we can use them as pep talk before, during, and after our upcoming holidays.

Dear Hye-ri

“Prepare my heart. Get ready to meet the version of myself in requited love.” — Hye-ri (Shin Hye-sun)

Giving yourself a chance to feel positive that your significant ones’ will love your gifts, food contributions and decorations, like how Hye-ri (Shin Hye-sun) is confident that Joo-yeon (Kang Hoon) will like her, might manifest your wish for appreciation.

Who knows, your significant other might seriously apply the values that holidays usually require—kindness, compassion, appreciation and love.

No Gain, No Love

“Find someone who will love every aspect of you.” — Eun-young (Kim Hye-hwa)

“You cannot please everyone” is a wisdom that might still be applicable even in the season of kindness. So as soon as you settle into that holiday party, immediately find your tribe who will have your back throughout the celebration.

Bad Memory Eraser

“You think about sponsors, parents, and staff but why don’t you think about yourself?” — Dr. Joo-yeon (Jin Se-yeon)

Are you used to hearing this line: “Come on! Do it for the occasion. It’s just once a year!” multiple times, every time you say no, during holidays? If your answer is yes, are you thinking of the possible things they would want you to do this coming holiday, but that you don’t want to do?

Then, you might want to consider Dr. Joo-yeon’s (Jin Se-yeon) wisdom and make a plan on how you will compromise with your loved ones—giving them what they want while maintaining your boundaries.

Dare to Love Me

“Whatever people think of you, you’re amazing just as you are.” — Hong-do (Lee Yoo-young)

College major, employment status, relationship status, paycheck, political opinions, and life plans are the icebreaker topics that some of us might easily think of during the holidays, yet if we’re not careful of our reactions and comments to each other’s answers to those topics, we might actually grow the ice instead of breaking it.

In this kind of setback, Hong-do’s (Lee Yoo-young) wisdom comes in handy.

Doctor Slump

“Hating someone is so exhausting… Feeling that way toward someone is hurting you too much” — Wol-seon (Jang Hye-jin)

Getting frustrated before, during or after the holidays is sometimes inevitable as they are important events for us and our loved ones. So, we want everything to be perfect and if that “flawlessness” fails to happen, we tend to lose our cool — not only to ourselves, but to our loved ones.

To minimize this from happening, we can recite Wol-seon’s (Jang Hye-jin) wisdom every time we start to get impatient.

With these comforting words of wisdom from some of the 2024 K-dramas, may your holidays become merrier. 

From the Cherry Chu Team, Happy Holidays!

Edited by Maia Anselmo.