For many of us Christmas is a time of joy and festivity. Families arrange to travel long distances to spend time with each other bringing presents and cheer. Long hours are spent trying to find just the right gift for someone and then acting as if the gift you received is just the thing you wanted even if it was the one thing you didn’t want. Christmas time is fun and gaiety for most of us but there are a few people out there that just don’t seem to get into the spirit.
Not everyone has a merry Christmas, for some it is the most agonizing time of the year. These are the people who experience Blue Christmas. For many years, I was one of these people. My mother who passed away on December 19th was buried on Christmas Eve and although I was very young when she died, I always wished for her to be there at least on that one day. As the season approached, every Christmas song that played on the radio or on a store intercom brought me to tears. There were times when I was young and saw people laughing as they shopped that I wanted to just lash out at them, to scream for them to stop. Christmas was a very hard time for me. I have grown, I have learned to enjoy the holiday, but that first carol of the season will still bring a tear to my eye.
There are many people who hurt at Christmas time. Some who are far from home and cannot be with their families, some who have lost a family member in recent months or years, and some who feel they just can’t afford to participate–this is a very hard time for all of them. If you see someone who appears to be having trouble with the season, don’t press, don’t push, just allow them to know that there is someone there, someone who is willing to listen, someone who will open their heart and their arms and give them the hug that they need and if necessary, that shoulder to cry on.