As I was making modified Christmas plans with my parents the other day, my dad reminded me that we had already been through a quarantine Christmas. It was 1987 and I was 7 years old. On the day before Christmas break, we found a strange mark on my sister; by the middle of the next week all three of us (me, my older sister, and my younger brother) were all covered in chicken pox. Our family was forced distance ourselves from society for the two weeks of Christmas break (the part I remember most is not getting to miss ONE day of school with chicken pox).
My parents did the best they could to keep up holiday spirits. My siblings and I organized a mini-pageant, complete with re-written songs to mark our unique holiday, including: While shepherds watched their pox at night (which we thought was hilarious at the time). We exchanged gifts and spent time with one another. As much as we were uncomfortable, we got through it, and even created some memories.
I say this, first, as an encouragement to the parents who are worried about the long-term impact this will have on their kids: they will be fine. The only lasting effect from the chicken pox Christmas is that I sometimes sing the wrong words to the carol referenced above. Beyond that, it was a minor inconvenience in a life with much greater struggles.
The second reason I bring this up is as a means of direction. The reason why we didn’t worry about our ‘lost’ Christmas is because we never thought about it that way, which was based on how my parents chose to face it. We all followed them in how we thought through and processed what we experienced. In their minds: this was not a time to feel sorry for ourselves, to complain about what we couldn’t do, or to lament how unfair or difficult it was. We simply celebrated within the limits we had. We had a good time and we remembered what Christmas was about.
Which is the third thing I would like to point out: the challenges of this year give us a better perspective on Christmas than we have had in a very long time. At Christmas, we celebrate the story of Savior who left the perfection to be born into this sinful world, as an infant, into a poor family. The family then had to flee to Egypt, to escape the slaughter of the innocents, to live as an exile for the beginning of His life. While we don’t know a lot from his childhood, we do know that the end of His life was not without difficulty. All of this to say, the idea that things should go well is very unChristmaslike.
Instead, may we do our best to find joy as we live in this sinful world. This life is not meant to be ideal, and sometimes we need to be reminded that it falls far short. It would be worse for us to be continually satisfied by trivial things than it is for us to feel the weight of what is lacking. So press into this quarantine season, it may be the closest thing to the first Christmas you experience in this life.
