I'll Have a Blue Christmas...With Other Depressed People

I'll grant you that Christmas can be a tough season for those who are depressed or who have suffered losses, but I don't like this idea at all:

RICHMOND, Va. (AP) - There were no jolly Christmas carols to be found at the Cannon Memorial Chapel. No festive branches of holly. No smiling faces or hearty wishes of happiness.

Instead, somber piano music echoed in the hushed church. Dead branches were lain on a table covered in blue cloth, representing the "winter of our souls." Men and women held each other and cried.

"This is not a traditional Christmas service," Chaplain Kate O'Dwyer Randall began, opening the church's nondenominational "Blue Christmas" service on Tuesday, which drew around 60 people.

The University of Richmond's chapel is one of many churches across North America offering Blue Christmas services this year, aimed at addressing a season that brings many people depression and grief rather than comfort and joy.

"Holidays in our culture are often about families, and families are not always happy institutions," said O'Dwyer Randall, who once worked as a grief counselor. "I think that particularly if you're facing a death or a divorce, the 'empty chair syndrome' becomes very real at this time of year."

As a former pastor of mine used to say: BUCK UP! Instead of a community mope-fest, why don't you go find some people worse off than you and see what you can do to help them? I guarantee you that will do more to perk up your holiday feelings than sitting around and crying on each other's shoulders. All this service will do is reinforce feelings of loneliness and loss. A pity party is not the answer. Instead of meeting at the chapel, why don't you go meet at the local homeless shelter. That will take your mind off your problems.