This year has been tremendously weighing on us, and with Christmas right around the next corner, many of us are feeling the strain more detrimentally now than at any other point of this year. Some of us are worried about not being able to see our friends and family, all our loved ones on Christmas of all days! It seems impossible and it is a heartbreaking thought. With so many opinions and ideas being circulated around, we are all struggling to make sense of our current world and many of us are struggling to know how to even have these conversations! Around our own dinner tables, we may sit right across from someone who doesn’t view the facts of the pandemic the same way that we do, and many of us are worried about the tension this may bring to Christmas night as well. COVID-19 has made our world confusing, troublesome, and uncertain and unfortunately for many of us, it has blemished the wonder that Christmas time is supposed to bring.

Christmas and COVID-19 do have one thing in common though: togetherness. The difference there of course is that COVID-19 has forced it onto us in a sinister way and Christmas encourages it in us through love and light. Still, the theme exists prominently in both, and I think that has potential to be advantageous for us this holiday season.

The common concern about how COVID-19 may affect Christmas this year heavily circulates around the fear of the pandemic disturbing Christmas’ togetherness. Everything we think of when we picture Christmas, this virus fails to allow. Sitting at a full table surrounded by warm, familiar faces enjoying a feast together. Wrapping your arms around your mother and pulling her in for a long, tight hug. Holding hands around a tree and singing melodies memorized since childhood. Passing around gifts and engaging in lighthearted games and activities. Many of us are already grieving over the possibility of those fundamentals being taken away from us this year.

In a way, I think it is funny where we have placed our worries. Do me a favor and think back to your favorite classic Christmas tale. Whether it be The Grinch, A Christmas Carol, Miracle on 34^th Street, or one of the countless other stories, they all share a similar theme: the value of Christmas Spirit.

Look around; Christmas is still happening. Ornaments are still being threaded through trees and lights are still strung around rooftops. Every store on your street is promoting a Christmas sale and their halls are still decked with candy canes and holly. Christmas does not technically have to happen. We created Christmas and we could decide to skip it- but we are not. Through all the chaos, we are still readying ourselves for December 25^th as we have every year before. Christmas is still happening.

Think about how remarkable that is for a moment. The hand we were dealt this year was less than ideal and despite it all, we are still scrolling through Amazon seeking gifts we want to give to those we love, and we are still hanging wreaths on our front doors. We are still embracing the Christmas spirit.

I know that you have learned that Christmas looks a certain way, but if you have read any of the stories or watched any of the films, you should know that it does not have to. If in some way, we are celebrating with joy, gratitude, and generosity, then we are continuing the tradition of our Christmas spirit.

Let that be your focus this year. Get creative with how you choose to spread joy. Maybe you can write a letter in a card, wrap it in a box with hot chocolate and a treat, and leave it on your neighbor’s doorstep to encourage the spirit in them. Maybe you can pick up the phone and dial those you miss so much, I bet it is something any of your elder relatives would adore a great deal. The point is: just because we are in the middle of a pandemic does not mean Christmas is cancelled. It just means Christmas might be temporarily trying on a new look.

This year, let’s remember and embrace our Christmas spirit.

We are in this together.