While Advent is a Christian season of hope and Christmas is a season of joy, not everyone feels hopeful or like celebrating. Grief, illness, aging, depression, loneliness, unemployment, underemployment, and loss are magnified. Even those who are not struggling with losses may experience the stress of preparations and expectations around Christmas time.
The Blue Christmas gathering provides a time and place of solace during the days surrounding the celebration of Christmas. We come together seeking healing and room to share grief, sadness, loneliness, confusion, and joy when emotions may feel out of place during the holidays. In the Northern Hemisphere, December 21 is the winter solstice. It marks the shortest day of the year, the official start of winter. Tradition says that nature and all her creatures stop and hold their breath to see if the sun will turn back from its wanderings, if the days will lengthen and the earth will once again feel the sun’s warmth. As we approach this longest night of the year, we come with darkness and light, for ourselves and for the whole world, and we come longing and hoping.