The Mixed Blessing That Is The Holidays

"I'll be home for Christmas, if only in my dreams."  --1943, composed by Gannon, Kent, and Ram

It is the cheesiest of cheesy Christmas kitsch, and oh my goodness, do I still love it and yes, I still drag it out for display every single December. 

In 2007 for the holidays our office staff decided to hold a Secret Santa to mark the holidays. You pick a name and buy that person a gift, which they receive anonymously, until your true identity is revealed.

So, we selected names, and then went forth to buy our gifts, and all for the agreed upon price of $15 or less. I went to Filene’s Basement and found a plastic snow globe, which featured a choir of singers contained under that dome. When you pushed the bright yellow button on the front, it warbled the electronic tune of “Angels We Have Heard on High” while fake styrofoam snow was blown within the globe, all accompanied by the mechanical whir of a battery driven motor.

Ho, ho, ho!

Jose, who was the church’s administrator and my holiday gifting victim (all the other gifts were tasteful and appropriate) accepted my offering with grace and kindness. “Thank you!” she said, while the other folks just groaned at my Christmas faux pas.

Every year afterwards, we’d have a good laugh when she pulled the globe out of storage and put it on her desk for all to see.  And to push the button of course. It was a hit, especially with younger kids who loved to watch the snow, snow, and listen to the music. Through the years the motors begun to falter and the music is slower but 18 Christmases later, it still works.

Now I have it in my office.

You see in 2019 Jose died away from lung cancer. I worked with her for eleven years, saw her almost every single workday, and was so blessed not just by her competence but even more so by her love and friendship. She was a good soul. Now every Christmastime when I look at that tacky priceless snow globe, I always remember Jose. 

I thank God I got to know her and that makes me happy.  And I’m sad too because it is another holiday that she is gone. I still miss her. Alot.

This dichotomy of sadness and joy, of memory and loss, of getting excited for the holidays while perhaps also kind of dreading the holidays: it’s pretty common in our world. It may not be very visible, this Christmas melancholy you might call it.  After all…

IT’S THE HOLIDAYS, AND AT THE HOLIDAYS WE ARE SUPPOSED TO BE VERY VERY VERY VERY HAPPY!!!!

No Grinches, no Scrooges or long suffering Bob Cratchetts allowed.  At least that’s what the commercials and the Christmas Industrial Complex tells and sells us.  Have a holy jolly Christmas, it’s the best time of the year!

And so….

It’s a wonderful holiday because there is a new baby in the family and it is a tough Christmas because we miss someone who isn’t at the dinner table on the 25^th anymore.  It is a beautiful season because those who are religious remember and tell again of Christ’s birth or mark Hannukah with gifts and candles every night. But then it’s tough. Mom’s not here this year because she’s in a nursing home. Sis is struggling to find a job. 

Those of us in the Christian tradition certainly know the story of these holy days is very mixed. No room at the Inn for an unwed teenage mom and nervous apprentice carpenter dad. Just days after his birth, this infant’s very life is threatened because a power hungry narcissistic king is out to get him. And all because this little baby one day would grow up and teach the world to love unconditionally and to welcome the stranger, the orphan, and the widow. 

Crazy kings then. Crazy kings now.

Yes, holidays and holy days are sometimes beautiful and difficult and all at the same time. So, may God bless us all in this holy season with a spirit of gentleness, kindness, and mercy.

For ourselves, others, and the world. 

(The views expressed in this essay do not necessarily reflect the views of the people and church I serve nor the United Church of Christ.)

The Reverend John F. Hudson is Senior Pastor of the Pilgrim Church, United Church of Christ, in Sherborn, Massachusetts (pilgrimsherborn.org). He blogs at sherbornpastor.blogspot.com and is a resident scholar at the Collegeville Institute at Saint John’s University in Collegeville, Minnesota. For twenty-five years he was a columnist whose essays appeared in newspapers throughout Massachusetts and Rhode Island. He has served churches in New England since 1989. For comments, please be in touch: pastorjohn@pilgrimsherborn.org.