Winter Needs Christmas

Recently while waiting in line in a ladies room at a Christmas orchestra concert, I engaged in conversation with the lady in front of me. She noted that this time of year required a lot more work to get dressed to go out due to the weather. She ended with the remark:
"Summer is easier."

In my mind I immediately reacted with, "But summer doesn't have Christmas!"

Know that summer looms large for me as my favorite season, followed closely by spring. I love warm days and easy clothes, as she was remarking about. When fall comes, and the days shorten, I shudder to face the growing darkness and cold. I can distinctly remember feeling this way at least as long ago as college. More recently we learned a label for this aversion, Seasonal Affective Disorder, or SAD.

Having SAD means I crave light, and as the days shorten, I struggle. I am grateful for my "happy light" which I use for morning devotionals and greatly improves my mood and outlook on life.

But as much as I'd rather it be summer, summer still doesn't have Christmas!

I'm writing this on Winter Solstice. Every year on this day, while people celebrate the end of the days getting shorter, and the beginning tomorrow of more light, a discussion ensues about the origin of the date of Christmas. Many hold that we only celebrate the birth of Jesus in December because we wanted to co-opt the pagan holidays around the solstice.

Others hold December 25 to be the actual date of Jesus' birth.

Whichever proves to be accurate, I'm not concerned about the historical date of Jesus' birth. I'm just grateful it happened. And what's more, I've grateful we celebrate it in winter. God picked the actual date, whenever it was. And I believe God knew we needed to celebrate it, however we got here, in winter. I know I sure do.

Fall unravels me slowly but I hold onto hope, because Christmas is coming. My family will be home, we will have long hours to eat and laugh and talk. After everyone leaves, I definitely suffer a downswing, but the days have already begun to lengthen. Light matters.

One of the myriad of brilliant ideas C.S. Lewis used in his Narnia series involves having the evil White Witch cast a spell putting Narnia into endless winter, and no Christmas. Imagine! The worst of everything! The cold, the inconvenience, the misery, with no hope in sight! No relief, no joy. One of the first indicators that Aslan breaks the spell happens when sleigh bells are heard and Father Christmas appears.

Regardless of the historical events that resulted in our current system, I am grateful that Christmas comes in winter. I am grateful that on this shortest day, I know Christmas happens soon, family returns to the nest, and light wins, again.