Season 3.4 in which Christmas takes on a blue-ish shade
Advent 3.4 in which Christmas takes on a blue-ish shade
Not everyone, all the time, experiences the season of Advent and Christmas with the same feelings of joy and celebration. Some days may be better, some days may be difficult. There might be gaps in the family circles where strained relationships, distance, or death have broken bonds. Disappointment, regret, and sorrow are often magnified. Feelings of inadequacy, of “not measuring up”, or just not meeting our own expectations of where we thought we’d be eleven months ago when the year was fresh and new, all come to bear on the Advent and Christmas season. Blue Christmas addresses these feelings.
Rather than putting on a facade, Blue Christmas and Longest Night services provide the opportunity for honesty and healing. I don’t always want to smile and “fake till I make it”, in fact that only deepens the disappointment and anxiety. Entering into psalms of lament, prayers of release, and rituals of remembering provide a feeling of safe-harbor and shelter from the glitter and lights and laughter.
We’ve collected a variety of resources that we are posting here. We have a few sample services. We have articles on grief. Links to images of the masters of Western art depicting images to help the grieving find expression for that which is beyond words. And, of course, music. For the music, we have begun a playlist at Spotify. We will also be adding to the All That’s Holy Blue Collar Playlist from time to time. And on specially themed occasions like this, we’ve developed an All That’s Holy Blue Collar Blue Christmas Playlist. Find the link below.
Note: The cover illustration, Monk by the Seas, German Romantic artist, Caspar David Friedrich, 1808. German romantics believed the divine could illustrate themes of the divine. Read more here.
Worship and Liturgical Resources:
United Church of Canada – A Blue Christmas Service
United Methodist - Blue Christmas: A Service of Reflection for the Longest Night
A reflective candle ceremony at the heart of the liturgy.
Steve Taylor – Alternative Blue Christmas Service
A Baptist pastor in New Zealand (where Blue Christmas is on the longest day, not the longest night).
Articles:
Time Magazine - ‘The World Moves On And You Don’t.’ Parents Who Lost Children in School Shootings Find Comfort in a Group No One Wants to Join
Religion News Service - Getting through a Christmas of grief
Psychology Today - How to Deal with Grief During the Holidays
Relevant Magazine - How Do I Deal With My Dysfunctional Family During the Holidays?
Whatsyourgrief.com - Types of Grief: Yes, there’s more than one
Resources:
Wounded in the Spirit: Advent Art and Meditations, by David Bannon
In twenty-five illustrated daily readings we commune with Scripture and the wounded artists that gave the world masterpieces of hope: Gauguin, Tissot, Caravaggio, Tanner, Delacroix, van Gogh, Dürer. We’ve heard the names. We recognize the paintings. But do we know the artists? They were flawed and often troubled people: a widower that saw a vision of Christ; a murderer who painted himself as Peter; a grieving father that drew his sons as Jesus and John; an orphan who saw his salvation in the Holy Family. Despite their wounds—perhaps because of them—these artists achieved the sublime. Their humanity inspires us.
Grief Connection – The Metropolitan Museum of Art
A four-minute video illustrating depictions of grief on canvas
Down syndrome diagnosis at the Adoration of the Christ Child
For many parents, the birth of a child with a life-long syndrome or disorder is a loss of a sense of the expected and ordinary. But an anonymous artist (“Follower of Jan Joest of Kalkar”) in 1515 sought to bring divinity and light to those who may miss the hidden gifts.
David Sedaris – Crumpet the Elf
“It’s not about the child, or Santa, or Christmas, or anything , but the parents and the world they cannot make work for them.”
Music:
A Blue Christmas Soundtrack on Spotify
Sleeping At Last – Someone to Watch Over Me
Reflective, a bit of mourning, and hope, in this cover version of the Gershwin classic from 1926.
Sleeping at Last – I’m Gonna Be 500 Miles
Covering the romping 80’s pop song and making it a beautiful testament of devotion and commitment. Originally aired as a Super Bowl commercial about a puppy and Clydesdale.
Bing Crosby - I’ll be home for Christmas
“I’ll be home for Christmas, you can plan on me, please have snow and mistletoe and presents on the tree…Christmas eve will find me, where the love light gleams, I’ll be home for Christmas, if only in my dreams.”
Dan Fogelburg – Same Auld Lang Sine
Merle Haggard - If We Make It Through December
LCD Soundsystem - Christmas Will Break Your Heart
“Believing in the line/That your heart would melt with time/And though you're out with them again/Your thick and fickle friends/They might replace the love that ends/But still I'm coming home to you”
Alison Krauss & Natalie MacMaster - Get Me Through December
Reminds me that this season for some is an endurance contest, just wanting to get through it: Just get me through December/A promise I'll remember/Get me through December/So I can start again
The Pogues Featuring Kirsty MacColl - Fairytale Of New York (Official Video)
"I could have been someone"/"Well, so could anyone/You took my dreams from me/When I first found you"/"I kept them with me, babe/I put them with my own/Can't make it all alone/I've built my dreams around you"
Elvis Presley - Blue Christmas (Audio)
“And when those blue snowflakes start falling/That's when those blue memories start calling/You'll be doin' all right, with your Christmas of white/But I'll have a blue, blue blue blue Christmas”
Dropkick Murphy’s – The Season’s Upon Us
“The table's set, we raise a toast/The Father, Son, and the Holy Ghost/I'm so glad this day only comes once a year/You can keep your opinions, your presents, your 'Happy New Year'/They call this Christmas where I'm from/They call this Christmas where I'm from”
May your Christmas be as blue as you need this year!
