Princess Doom and Gloom revisits Christmas.

   On my drive home from my Grandma's this evening I began thinking about the melancholy that sometimes comes with the holidays.  Sure, Christmas is great and all but sometimes people are sad, lonely, angry or maybe just a little melancholy.  As is usual, these feelings are usually not addressed at all.  What happens to people who are just a little sad?  Maybe partially because Christmas, as well as, other holidays is geared toward traditional values and family groupings.  What happens to those who are a little outside of what the world around views as "normal"?  What happens if you have no family or friends to spend holidays with?  What happens if you are just a little sad?  Where is the Christmas for sadness?
   I know, I know this sounds like classic "Princess Doom and Gloom".  I fully admit that I am an over thinker with a strong tendency toward unnatural intensity.  But as I like to say, this is part of my charm.  I have a lovely, although small, family.  I have a fantastic group of friends around me.  I am in many respects, a happy and fulfilled woman.  But sometimes, around the holidays, the traditional milestones that I have not reached begin to nag at me.  I am forty. I am single. I have no children. I am a freak.  I am happy most of the time but I like to ponder things.  And pondering things sometimes leads to the melancholy.  Melancholy sometimes leads to pondering of the big existential questions.  This pondering is why I write, I suppose.
   My point in all of this is a simple one.  We need to make more room for unhappiness at Christmas.  If you feel unhappy, dissatisfied, uneasy, angry or lonely at Christmas, you may not be crazy.  You may be different. Or maybe not.  Maybe you just don't do a great job at hiding the unsavory emotions.  Or maybe, you just don't care.  What I am saying here is - it is all good.  Christmas can be a hard holiday to handle - all of the shopping, all of the stress, all of the family, all of the kookiness.
   Kookiness like: the elder relative who insists on using scissors to unwrap EVERY present, who saves EVERY piece of paper regardless of condition, who folds and trims EVERY sheet of wrap before placing it in the trash can.  Kookiness like: a family member unwittingly insulting everyone in the room by calling one person, "the intelligent one".
   Now, I love Christmas.  I love giving gifts.  This year, I loved making little hand pies to give to people.  I love seeing family and friends.  But I also love the craziness that comes with holidays.  And I am trying to own all of the emotions that come with Christmas: the excellent, the good, the bad, and even the ugly.  It helps that I received Martha Stewart's book "Pies and Tarts" - circa 1985.  I plan to drown all of my sorrows in pie making.  So Christmas unhappiness be gone!  Let's all keep calm and carry on.  At least until New Year's.

for our melancholy moments