December is mostly dark out here.
Long nights. Late mornings. The kind of cold that makes sound travel farther and silence feel heavier.
People love to talk about Christmas like it’s all light, but that’s never really been true. Christmas happens inside the dark. It always has. The story only works because the night is long, the road is hard, and the world feels a little thin around the edges.
I notice the dark more now. Maybe it’s because I’m older. Maybe because I have a child asleep down the hall, and the house finally goes quiet. That’s when Christmas feels real to me—not when the music is on, but when it’s turned off.
There’s an odd comfort in knowing the dark isn’t the enemy. It’s just the background. It’s what makes small things matter. A lamp that’s left on. A voice in the next room. The soft sound of the little one breathing, steady and sure.
Some years, Christmas carries grief. Some years, it carries relief. Most years, it carries both. We bring the whole year with us, whether we mean to or not. The mistakes. The near misses. The moments we wish we’d handled better. The ones we didn’t know we’d treasure until they were already gone.
And still—people show up.
They cook. They call. They sit beside each other and pass food, stories, and silence back and forth like it’s something sacred. No one says it out loud, but we all know what we’re doing. We’re pushing back against the dark, not by fighting it, but by refusing to face it alone.
That’s the part of Christmas I trust.
Joy is something that doesn’t happen all at once. It’s not one particular thing. It slips in. Quiet. Almost shy. It hides in all sorts of ordinary places—warm clasped hands, familiar laughter, a light left on when it doesn’t have to be. It’s not loud enough to drown out everything else, but it doesn’t need to be. It stays.
This season doesn’t ask us to be perfect. It asks us to be present. To carry a little light. To keep watch for one another. To remember that even the smallest flame changes the shape of the room.
The dark doesn’t ruin Christmas.
It makes it honest. And that’s the magic of it.
So with that…
I wish you warmth this Christmas night,
A little light to hold you tight.
Through longest dark and winter’s chill,
May quiet joy your heart fulfill.
Merry Christmas, one and all.
The CJBuzz 