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I love Christmas! I always have and hope I always will – that is despite all the information I hear about how the stress of the holiday season increases the severity of conditions like depression and anxiety.

I can see and understand the stress issues and the issue of the letdown that might come after Christmas has come and passed. But, I think, or wonder, for how many would the grey, gloomy dark days of Christmas become even glummer and more anxious without the holidays that grace this time of year?

There are reasons why Christmas is celebrated at the time of year it is. It has less to do with the time of Christ’s birth than to do with it being a good time for a celebration. It is a time when spirits of a community might be flagging, yet there are still resources enough to host a feast and celebration. There is also a time on the Solar calendar to mark the time with the 25th being the time that it is first noticeable that the Sun is once more raising from it’s lowest noontime rising. That’s why the holidays are celebrated on the 25th rather than on the Winter Solstice which happens earlier around the 21st of December most years.

There are holidays in many cultures celebrated at this time and I wonder if it is for the reasons of the climbing of the Noonday Sun and Winter Solstice in combination with a need of cheer during the start of the long cold winter?

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I imagine one might compare Northern Hemisphere cultures with Southern Hemisphere cultures and Tropical cultures to see if the idea holds water. I’m primarily considering cultures of the Northern Temperate zones… or at least Northern Hemisphere areas which experience seasonal changes like Winter.

Personally, I live in what the Americans call “The Pacific Northwest” although it is Canada’s Pacific Southwest. The one thing we have in common is a long, grey, wet, Winter. There are long months with much less Sunshine than people are happy with. We don’t have the bright snowy yards and fields with brilliant blue clear if cold skies.

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The lights of Christmas displays add a great deal to the dreary “nightscape” and I am very sad to see them go out, a house at a time over the week after the 25th. When I lived on the prairies I loved seeing the Christmas lights on the snow covered eaves – especially when the wind whipped cornices of snow wrapping them over the gutters of the roof.  The lights looked so beautiful reflecting and refracting through that snow.

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Here on the Pacific coast the beauty is in seeing the Christmas lights reflected and refracted through the multitude of raindrops, puddles, and other wetness of this wet land. Christmas lights in the fog are quite beautiful as well

All that colour does help brighten my mood. I also look forward to giving gifts and preparing and sharing those special foods that come with the holiday. To me the work is no work because it is the work that is part of the celebration. I guess it is the way you look at it. I can see how it can become a burden to shop and cook if you stop enjoying it.

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I do wonder how many people might have a greater depression without the holiday? It might not be true for those who very much dislike being around those they feel forced to be with. It might not be true for those who feel forced to shop and cook or feel pressures to be perfect. It might increase feelings of loneliness in some, but they might have those feelings as much or more in the gloom.

I wonder if perhaps there are more excuses even for the very shy or anxious to see friends or relatives, or perhaps for people to reach out if only for the short while?

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I know for some like me, it does help us get through the year. I do love the holiday. I do try to be giving all year ‘round though and wish some of the things that are available at Christmas times might be available all year ‘round.  I rather like Eggnog.

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