Just when you think that you can make it through the season without having the Holiday Blues, they come sailing through your doors and windows and knock you to the floor. This year as the season approached I tried so many different things just so that the Holiday Blues would stay away. I even thought of all of the advice so many well-meaning friends and family members would give me with the all out favorite being … get out of yourself, do things for others, go to others homes and celebrate the season with them…don’t let yourself get the Holiday Blues to start with. Oh, if it was just that easy for me!!
My tree is standing up in my living room waiting for me to decorate it…it’s been there since Saturday afternoon. Here it is Monday and it still looks as green and plain as it did on Saturday! I got out all of the holiday music and played it loudly throughout the house but found myself shutting it down and saying to myself…really, did you think that would work?
Tonight, I will finish decorating my tree and will work on finishing up the decorations around the house so that it will be all done by the time everyone comes on Thanksgiving Day. The music will be playing and the house will be alive with the sounds of Christmas; but how do I get those Holiday Blues to walk out the door and not return?
Have you seen the commercial for a sleep aid that shows “sleep” and “awake” as animal like creatures? That is how the Holiday Blues are for me. I want them to go to sleep and not to wake up but as the Christmas season gets closer and I see the commercials of families shopping and being together, my heart sinks because I know what Christmas eve and Christmas Day end up being for me. No matter how much I do for others or activities that I attend around Christmas, those Holiday Blues are just a blink away as I think of the empty house and the feeling of emptiness that will be there on Christmas morning as I open the few gifts sitting under my tree. I am grateful to be remembered by those I love but it doesn’t take away the aloneness that I feel.
Yes, I love “A Season of Thanksgiving” and I adore “A Season of Joy, Hope and Love”. Inside this heart is one who loves to give and serve others and I know I will continue doing that as long as I can; but how nice it would be just to have laughter of young children and the hustle and bustling of family filtering through my home. You see I have never had little ones wake me up early in the morning to open the gifts that Santa has left them or spent time on Christmas Eve preparing for Santa’s gift to the little ones. I haven’t tried to figure how I will celebrate Christmas for that special one in my life because he is none existent right now. I am invited to visit others and to have brunch with my dad and stepmom, which means the world to me, but how nice it would be to fix pancakes or waffles for the family of my own.
For now, as this beautiful and wonderful season approaches, my mind will turn to my Savior as I decorate tonight. The manger scenes I have will go out along with the book on the birth of the Savior. My living room will become a place of solace and peace and beauty as I once again understand that it is my Savior’s birth that will be focused on in my home…the only way I know to make the Holiday Blues go away! On Christmas Eve, I will read the story of the first Christmas and Christmas music will be playing in the background. I will celebrate this season with love and joy in my heart as I always have and will dread for Christmas Day to be over. Yes, the Holiday Blues are there but the joy of Christmas is there too!! I love Christmas and I love my Savior!!
May all families everywhere have a beautiful and wonderful Christmas season!! May those same families remember that there are many who struggle during the holidays and are trying the hardest that they can to be joyful, happy, full of love and willing to serve! I know that as the years past, I have begun to understand that even more than I ever have before. Be gentle and loving and let them know that they too are part of an eternal family that will last forever!!
May joy come to your families throughout the coming seasons…Thanksgiving and Christmas as we celebrate why there is still “JOY” in this world.
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