The holidays have a funny way of stretching us across time zones, group chats, and emotional bandwidth all at once.
Some years, you’re surrounded by family, laughter, and cookies you didn’t have to bake yourself. Others, you’re FaceTiming your mom from an airport floor, sitting with your chosen family at a potluck, or squeezing in a quick “love you, mean it” video call between work shifts.
For many queer people, it’s a blend of both, resulting in a hybrid holiday that’s equal parts sweet, chaotic, and beautifully improvised.
In my world, December looks like a patchwork of people I love scattered across the map. My family sends blurry photos of the Christmas tree they refuse to decorate until I “approve” the color scheme. My best friend hosts a chosen family dinner with more pies than guests. My partner’s family group text lights up every two minutes like a festive emergency alert system.
And somewhere in the middle, I’m trying to keep up by sharing photos, swapping recipes, checking flight delays, sending voice notes, and pretending I didn’t panic-spend $300 on overnight shipping for a gift that should have been ordered in November.
It’s a lot.
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But it’s also the season when connection matters the most. The season when we try to pour a little extra into everything, whether it’s our plans, our gifts, or our time with each other.
And let’s be honest, connection isn’t just emotional this time of year. It’s digital. It’s literal. It’s the lifeline that keeps long-distance relationships warm, chosen families knitted together, and far-flung loved ones folded into the joy.
This year, I’ve found myself thinking about how much of my holiday season happens through my phone. Not instead of real life, but intertwined with it. The photo of my niece in her matching pajamas. The group video from my yoga students who surprised me with a holiday card. The way my queer friends check in with each other with a simple “you good?” message that means far more than words suggest.
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These tiny connections add up. They build a sense of presence even when distance tries to interfere.
That’s why, during the busiest, messiest, most sentimental time of year, reliability becomes its own kind of love language. You don’t want your calls cutting out mid-story or your signal dropping right before the surprise proposal your cousin has planned for months.
You want the tech part—the invisible part—to just work. You want it to feel as smooth as a perfectly wrapped gift and just as satisfying.
Verizon’s holiday lineup leans into that idea.
Verizon Apple Bundle/Apple
Whether it’s their network reliability or the new Apple Bundle, complete with the iPhone 17, iPad, and Apple Watch Series 11, the focus is on keeping people connected without adding to the chaos. It’s the kind of holiday-upgrade energy that feels like over-stuffing a stocking with peace of mind instead of trinkets.
It’s technology designed to smooth out the edges, whether for a couple sending daily good-morning videos, a queer elder checking in on younger community members, siblings trading memes from opposite coasts, or friends coordinating their annual ugly-sweater party.
Connection takes many forms, but it always comes back to the same core truth:
We all want to feel close to each other.
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And when everything else gets busy, loud, or overwhelming, the steadiness of a reliable network becomes a gift in its own right. Not flashy or dramatic, it’s the significant glue that holds these holiday moments together.
Because the holidays aren’t just about where you are. They’re about who you can reach, and how easy it is to reach them.
