The Darkest Month

Upon those who dwell in darkness has shone a great Light!

I’m quite fond of December, despite the fact that here in the coastal Pacific Northwest, the sun sets at around 4:30 pm and hides behind clouds most of the time it’s supposedly up. Despite the melancholy leaving of the last of the leaves. Despite the ridiculous self-imposed hustle and bustle that most people seem to think is necessary in order to “properly” celebrate the commercial frenzy that masquerades under the sacred name of Christmas.

I love the real Christmas, the Nativity of Christ. Although many choose to ignore or deny the fact these days, the Incarnation of the Savior of the world is the source of what we call “Christmas spirit”—the impulse to honor those we love and extend uncharacteristic tolerance, kindness, and generosity to those we don’t know. Yes, that great event of our shared history indirectly motivates even those who deny that God, the Creator of the universe, chose to enter our human experience as a helpless infant so that He could grow up to be the Man who would show us the way back to the Paradise we rejected in the infancy of our race. Who could fail to rejoice in such unstinting generosity or refuse to reciprocate in the form of giving to our fellow humans? Only a Scrooge or a Grinch—and even they repented in the end.

But Christmas isn’t the only reason I love December. It’s also the month when, 21 years ago, my oldest grandchild was born. It’s the month we celebrate the real St. Nicholas, of whom Santa Claus is a mere parody, as well as St. Lucia, who inspired my first picture book. And towards the end of the month, in that magical week outside time between Christmas and New Year’s Day, falls my own birthday.

Even though this particular anniversary of my birth will bring me perilously close to the biblical limit of three score and ten, I still love birthdays. My family are usually pretty nice to me on that day. More importantly, since it’s so close to the New Year, I enjoy taking most of the day to myself to reflect on the past year and think about what I’d like to see unfold in my life in the year to come.

You see how cleverly I avoided using the words “plans,” “goals,” or, God forbid, “resolutions”? That’s because they tend to backfire for me. To paraphrase the Bard, “At humans’ plans, they say, God laughs.” The closest I’ll get to any of those minefield words is “intentions.” Intentions can change or be modified to accommodate whatever life ends up throwing at me in the course of the year. You can’t fail at an intention.

Maybe next month I’ll share with you what some of my hopes and intentions are for 2026 (after I’ve figured them out). For now, I’ll leave you to prepare in whatever way resonates with you for the celebration of Christ’s Birth. For me, that involves primarily attending church services, listening to oodles of traditional carols, and watching classic Christmas movies. (See some of my favorites below.) Gifts and food and decorations have their place as well, but I absolutely refuse to stress about them. I am old, and I beg to be excused.

Music for Christmas

If you listen to nothing else deliberately (no one can escape the barrage of winter holiday music in stores, etc.), try to catch the Service of Lessons and Carols from King’s College, Cambridge, that airs every Christmas Eve. If you miss this year’s event, you can probably find past years’ on YouTube. Some of my favorite carols are “Lo, How a Rose E’er Blooming,” “In the Bleak Midwinter,” and “The Sussex Carol.” But a full list of my favorites would be far too long to include.

If you can persuade a group of people to join you, why not try to revive the tradition of caroling in your neighborhood? As long as you have one person who can sing the melody accurately and strongly, it doesn’t much matter whether the rest can carry a tune. It’s great fun for the carolers and brings an unexpected blessing to those they visit—at least, to those who manage to hear the singers over their TVs.

Movies for Christmas

Admittedly, unlike music, movies are a late addition in the history of Christmas celebrations. But there are several that we feel essential to our own season.

We like to start by watching White Christmas on Thanksgiving Day. It’s a silly tradition but our own. After that, these others follow in no particular order:

Amahl and the Night Visitors (hint: they’re the Magi)
A Child’s Christmas in Wales (one big smile from beginning to end)
A Christmas Carol (aka Scrooge—the definitive Alastair Sim version from 1951)
A Charlie Brown Christmas (the original one with Linus reciting Luke 2)
It’s a Wonderful Life (still makes me cry every time)
Miracle on 34th Street (this Kris Kringle is more like the real St. Nicholas than most versions you’ll see)
The Bishop’s Wife (sounds weird to Orthodox and Catholics, but Anglican bishops have ’em—and Cary Grant as an angel is not to be missed)
Christmas in Connecticut (pure seasonal silliness)
The Polar Express (my husband loves the whole movie, but it’s all about the “Hot Chocolate” dance number for me)
Nutcracker: The Motion Picture (this is the Maurice Sendak-designed PNB production; we also love the ABT production with Baryshnikov and Gelsey Kirkland)

Fiction

The fictional Christmas that will live longest in my memory is that from the beginning of Little Women. Louisa May Alcott was one of the first authors who inspired me to write, and this scene of sacrificial giving at Christmas was formative for my understanding of the holiday.

Of course there are zillions more! I even wrote a mystery set at Christmas myself—Cyanide with Christie.

What are your Christmas favorites in any art form or genre?