Make Their Christmas Merrier

With each passing year and the closer it is to Christmas Day, the more I notice so many lonely souls.

People who will be spending the festive days alone. Families that are separated by distance, divorce or death. Folks who are emotionally and mentally struggling.

Meanwhile, we are inundated with images of happy, smiling, carefree people in family or friend groups celebrating and having fun together.

It begs to ponder how many families really have this ideal. The ideal that swamps us on television commercials and in the print media. I dare say, not many.

What of the folks who will spend the festive season in hospital, aged care or nursing home facilities? Will they have visitors that will spend much of the day with them? And make it a memorable and happy day?

Sadly, I feel, there are more and more lonely souls who will spend this time alone. Feelings of sadness, loneliness, loss and emptiness will be their companions.

Even people who are not alone, by the definition of being by themselves. There are the ones who are caring for family members or folks that require devoted care and/or have special needs. They can feel so very alone also at this time of year.

It is not merely Christmas and Boxing Day that can trigger the feelings and thoughts of loneliness. Albeit, it certainly can be heightened on these days. The days and sometimes even weeks before, some find problematic and challenging to navigate.

Whilst folks talk of their loved ones and friends visiting over the Xmas period with such gleeful delight, this can just shove home the fact to those in the opposite circumstances, that this is not going to be their story this year.

Where do these folks go and who do they turn to when most people seem so terribly busy and caught up in their preparations for their wonderful, joyful, together Christmas?

This may lead some of us to question what we can do ourselves, to make a difference in someone else’s Christmas. If you have not, perhaps you can consider it this year.

Will you set aside some time to phone someone you know who will be spending most or all of Christmas alone? Can you visit an elderly or sick person and bring a tiny bit of magic into their day? Are you able to invite someone into your home who would otherwise sit at theirs, all day, on their own?

What can we all do to ease the sadness, pain and loneliness that many are already and will experience over the festive days?

Let’s be kind, caring and compassionate and give our time, which is free, to bring a little bit of joy into the day of other beautiful souls. Make their Christmas merrier than it otherwise would be and I am certain, we will have a merrier one for doing so.

Another piece I wrote two years ago – This Time of Year

This article provides strategies that may be helpful to support yourself during this festive season – Coping with Christmas 

Image: Sue Nolan