This Christmas Will Be Very Different–and That’s Okay
By: Kyle Chastain
Tags: Christianity, Life, Self, Holidays, Christmas

Christmas looks a little different for you this year, right?

I grew up in the mountains of Western North Carolina, where it snowed almost every December. But I don’t remember very many white Christmases–and that’s not a bad thing.

The few times it snowed on December 25, it caused a headache because it ruined everyone’s plans. It wasn’t anything like a Norman Rockwell painting or a Christmas card. I doubt many people get nostalgic about salty, slushy roads and stranded cars.

Christmas rarely, if ever, is the perfect day pictured in Hallmark movies. But the popularity of those sappy Christmas movies is evidence of our hope that no matter how bad things get, Christmas Day can still be perfect.

No Christmas is perfect, and every Christmas is different

You’re not alone if you have a hard time recapturing the wonder of Christmas you felt as a child.

Maybe your life and experiences have made you more cynical as you’ve gotten older. Or perhaps you experienced a major change this year, and it’s highlighted during the holiday season.

You can’t escape the fact this Christmas is different from any other.

Many families will spend this Christmas apart because of the pandemic. Yes, we have the technology to help. But by now we know the limitations a screen puts between you and those you care about.

Aside from temporary physical separation from family, many people lost family members this year to the virus. Maybe you’re one of them. Your dinner table, whether physical or digital, will have one less person this year.

Add to that the mental anxiety caused by quarantine, a divisive election (in the U.S.), and losing normalcy, and you have a recipe for a bleak holiday season.

But Christmas is a season of joy.

Christmas is a time when Christians celebrate the birth of hope in the world–a hope the world desperately needs right now. That creates a problem.

This Christmas is full of contradicting emotions and we’re stuck between how we wish things were, and how they are.

Joy and sadness, together this Christmas

A lot of people feel a lingering sadness over the dark times we’ve plunged into this year. But there is also a feeling of joy that the Light of the World shines brightest in the dark.

When you look at it that way, it’s not hard to see the tension between joy and sadness a lot of people are living, is it?

Joy and sadness together is a strange feeling, but one you have to learn how to manage because life will go on whether you do or not.

Please understand, I don’t say that to be crass. I say it because faith and hope are the only beliefs that can help you keep moving forward.

If this Christmas is difficult for you, you should know it isn’t necessary to choose joy or sadness. You can feel both–it doesn’t have to be either/or.

There’s no shame in acknowledging the losses of this difficult year while finding joy in the season and expectations for the future.

It’s ironic because Jesus–the reason Christians celebrate Christmas–wasn’t born in a time of joy and happiness. Just the opposite.

Israel at the time of Jesus’ birth was under Roman control. They were oppressed and ruled over by a paranoid king who killed members of his own family. Jesus had a feeding trough for a crib, was born far from his home, and was exposed to the elements.

And that’s what makes Christmas so beautiful.

The light of the world, born in the darkest of times

By the Sixteenth Century, December 25 was in the middle of the summer.

Christmas was originally on the day of the winter solstice. But the Julian Calendar only had 362 days and didn’t take into account leap years. So the Pope issued a calendar reform to fix the problems and correct the calendar. This new calendar became known as the Gregorian Calendar and it is the calendar we follow today.

While creating the new calendar with three more days, clergy and scholars had to decide whether to keep Christmas on December 25 or move it back three days to the 21st–the winter solstice.

Christmas stayed on December 25th because it’s three days after the winter solstice, the shortest day of the year.

But that isn’t the best part. Are you ready for this?

Three days after the winter solstice is the first day the naked eye can see daylight grow again. It’s the first time since the first day of winter that the day feels a little bit longer.

On December 25–three days after the darkest day of the year–light breaks through and overcomes the darkness. Do you see where this is going now?

Three days after the darkest day, light is reborn.

This year, Christmas will be different. But the power of Christmas is that light breaks through the darkness.

Christmas is a promise we’re going to make it

Christmas is hope for a brighter day ahead. And who couldn’t use a little more hope this year?

So, your Christmas may not be a Norman Rockwell painting or a Hallmark movie, but it will be everything you make it despite the difference.

Christmas means this present darkness will eventually give birth to a new light. Christmas is a promise that you’re going to be okay if you can just hold on through the night.