Christmas seems to have come too fast and not fast enough this year. Like Halloween, it’s one of those long anticipation holidays. The older I get, the more I appreciate the silence about it. Not in a Grinch-like way, I hope. More along the lines of “Silent Night.” We spend so much of the year—so much of our lives—hustling about, barely having time to think. Speaking personally, it takes about a week off work just to begin to get to that phase. I need time to let the daily onslaught of work and capitalism and angst tune down. There’s a quietness about Christmas that’s profound. I suppose that’s why I like to spend it with my small family and not feeling obligated to go anywhere. It’s like those precious moments before sunrise that I experience daily, only all day long. That’s truly a gift.
The newspapers and internet sites have been summarizing the year for the last couple of weeks. That always seems premature to me. I understand why they do it, but Christmas and the days following are some of the very best of the year, and it makes sense to include those along with the stress, darkness, and ugliness that are the daily headlines. I can’t help but think of Simon and Garfunkel’s “7 O’Clock News/Silent Night.” Especially this year. Christmas is for everyone, and the insistence that we make it exclusive (putting Christ back into it) makes it divisive. Why some people have to be right all the time I don’t know. I prefer Hamilton Wright Mabie’s take: “Blessed is the season which engages the whole world in a conspiracy of love.” Simon and Garfunkel are both Jewish and I think they understood “Silent Night” better than many Christians did back in 1966.
I’ve been writing quite a lot about horror movies this year. The months and days leading up to Christmas have often been difficult ones. Such movies are therapy. They can even fit into the beautiful silence of this day. That’s my hope, anyway. May this day include enough silence for you. The rest of the year has no difficulty filling itself with trouble. We need holidays. Christmas has always struck me as the most peaceful of them all. Ministers, and even those of us who never made the cut, tend to be holiday experts. Those who don’t get caught up in the dogmatism of it all are the most blessed. Christmas is for everyone. And may it be peaceful this year.