You are not failing to Christmas properly

You are not failing to Christmas properly.

You are not failing if you are missing gifts, or if you are missing people. Or if
you have people but are kind of wishing you didn't.

Or if you have given up, and are planning to stay home with Netflix, a few drinks, and the chocolates you forgot to give to your son's teacher on the last day before holidays.

Because they lied to you about what Christmas means.

Martha Stewart lied to you about the decor, the Church lied about when Jesus was born, and a whole INDUSTRY lied about shopping, and everybody lies about what a "normal" family looks like.

The real story is a terrified refugee kneeling in a barn, surrounded by dirt and poop. Pushing a baby out and then being descended upon by uninvited guests with poor gift giving skills. The real story is Mary hoping the star of Bethlehem doesn't get any brighter, because she's relying on dim lighting to hide all the blood and mucus in the straw.

The real story is the Pagans, saying "sure, uh, Jesus was born in midwinter” to keep the church from vetoing their party holiday. The real story is Decking the Halls not with coordinated theme decorations, but with whatever was lying around. Pinecones, and anything still green, and basically garbage from the back yard.

The Christmas you’re trying to return to never happened.

December is not a season of beauty and depth and connection that you have somehow screwed up. Nobody gets that holiday--certainly not consistently. The only constant of Christmas is that it is constantly getting remade to fit the world of the people celebrating it.

The meaning of Christmas is not about being perfect. Every piece of the story, when you trace it back, is about the opposite of being perfect. It's about something more beautiful, more profound, and decidedly less photogenic. To be human is to be part of a great story of making do. Of changing and learning, and getting together.

AND YOU, with your best-I-can-but- not-perfect-efforts, fit right into that story. YOU ARE NOT FAILING CHRISTMAS.

You are doing Christmas exactly right.