Death may touch upon Christmas (or any other major holiday) in a few ways: a loved one may die on or near the date, the family may be keeping vigil through the holidays, and then the first feast day after a death will likely be difficult to face. Whatever the details, death can cast its shadow on even those days we set aside to celebrate life, to give and receive gifts, to enjoy one another’s company.
Some people attempt—often in the name of making Christmas for any children involved—to try to mimic the celebrations of other years without mentioning the fact of impending death or recent death that day. This can be exhausting and, in my observation, usually doesn’t work very well. Like the proverbial “elephant in the room,” trying to avoid or deny the impact of death altogether just guarantees that everyone is thinking about it.
