Who's Coming to Christmas Dinner?

The Christmas holidays are amazing, right? Getting together with family, sharing presents, eating a gross amount of turkey and shortbread cookies. It's the stuff memories are made of.

Unless it's not.

When I was at Mass recently, the priest offered a prayer for those who suffer from "holiday depression." It was the first time I had heard that expression. Holiday depression? But Christmas is "the most wonderful time of the year"!

The fact is that Christmas is a special time of coming together. But for those who don't have family traditions or faith communities to come together with it can feel like all these silos of joy are forming around you, and you're left on the outside.

WebMD offers some health tips for staving off holiday depression, including exercising, not watching too much TV, and socializing. "If you're feeling lonely, find a church or community center where you can be with other people." But if you're already starting to feel down, are you really going to work up the gumption to enter into some church you've never been to, where you don't know anyone?

This is where we can help make it truly the most wonderful time of the year. We can do so by making sure we are personally inviting people into our Church activities and our gatherings for meals.

Now I know, this isn't the way your family has always celebrated the holidays. "It's not our tradition," you say. Who cares? The best of your family/faith traditions around the holidays are not going to be compromised by inviting a new guest or three.

It will probably make it even more memorable.

Pope Francis just celebrated his 77th birthday. His breakfast celebration included staff and friends, and four homeless men. Our pope knows how Christians celebrate an occasion.

Let's make this Christmas something special and follow his example.  

Who have you invited to Christmas Mass this year? Who have you invited to dinner? Give it some thought and ask God to help you be bold in inviting friends and acquaintances.

Let's turn our silos of joy into homes with open doors. You may be conquering somebody's holiday depression and not even know it.

Question: Who are you going to reach out to this year? How are you going to do it?