Hey friend, I’m about to let you off the hook.

You are allowed to NOT love Christmas.

That’s right. I said it.

It’s ok if Christmas sucks for you. Or if you flat out hate this season.

You don’t have to be Buddy the Elf.

You don’t have to radiate Christmas spirit and put antlers on your car.

It’s ok if the shopping crowds give you anxiety and you just can’t bring yourself to go to any parties.

I’m giving you permission to be a bit of a Grinch if you need to.

For a lot of us….Christmas isn’t as fun. Family pictures make us sad. Shopping for gifts feels incomplete. Decorations feel lacking. And Christmas spirit feels forced.

Because we are missing someone at Christmas.

Whether it’s the first year or the 50th Christmas will never be the same.

I used to be the person that was over the top, Buddy the Elf, I LOVE CHRISTMAS AND IF YOU DON’T LOVE CHRISTMAS THEN YOU ARE LAME!!!! I didn’t see the mourners at Christmas. I didn’t understand not being able to set aside sadness for Christmas Spirit.

It’s Christmas after all. ‘The Most Wonderful Time of the Year.’

But I get it now.

I get what it feels like to know the Joy of Christmas, the Reason for the Season….but to be kind of uninterested in the commercial frivolity of it.

When your child has cancer during the holidays it changes your perspective.

When you find out your child is dying 3 days before Christmas then dies 10 days after Christmas….the holidays are forever different.

Even with a new baby this year, I’m still missing my other baby. The joy is incomplete.

I do, however, have a newfound appreciation for the true meaning behind Christmas. The birth of the Savior of the World. Mighty Counselor. Prince of Peace. The Lamb.

Jesus.

Without the birth of the Savior, there would be no point to any of this. No reason for Hope. No source of Joy. And no comfort in sadness.

Without Christmas there would be no Easter.

If the Baby in the manger wasn’t born to die on the cross, then He would never have risen from the grave to save us from sin.

Because of Christmas, those of us missing someone can find hope and joy in this season that is hard.

So I’m letting you off the hook friend, you can ‘hate’ Christmas….but still love the Christ.

“She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.”

Matthew 1:21