The Sacred Sorrow of Christmas

Had the gift of being the Christmas post for The Glorious Table! Please enjoy a preview here with a link to the full article below.

I love Christmas. I keep Christmas CDs in my car year-round and get obnoxiously happy when Walmart and Hobby Lobby put Christmas decorations out while we are still in triple-digit temperatures. I am the female version of Buddy the Elf and give fair warning to anyone who would like to unfollow me on social media from November to February. I repeat, I love Christmas.

I am well aware, particularly in my training as a mental health therapist, that Christmas is not experienced this way by everyone. Part of the reason I have the privilege of enjoying Christmas is because I have had positive Christmas experiences. I know this is a privilege, and thus, I don’t share to boast. Instead, I share it to point out how very surprising it has been to have a sort of “sacred sorrow” creeping into my Christmas experience over the past several years. Sadness has been a strange addition to my usual holiday cheer.

Being a Mother changes things like Christmas. It changes it in all the happy ways like adding to the magic, creating and renewing fun traditions, and finding secret joy when the toys of your youth come back in vogue and you can buy your kid something like an Etch-A-Sketch. However, as fun as all this is, I think being a mother has also changed the spiritual side of Christmas for me. I know now what it means to have a baby, to raise a child, and to know the pain that comes with your heart is walking around outside your body. It makes me see that babe in the manger very differently.

To read the full post head over to The Glorious Table here.