Christmas can be a wonderful time to gather with friends and family in shared warmth and love, but it can also be a time of depression, family violence and loneliness.
Not everyone shares the joyful feelings those cheerful jingles on the loudspeakers at local shopping malls are meant to induce, and it has been a pretty hard last couple of years. Christmas hamper programs and toy drives across the Calgary region are reporting higher than ever uptake on these programs as more families need help.
Economic stress is also no joke. It is one of the leading causes of domestic and family violence, which is amplified at Christmas time. It is also one of the leading causes of depression as families struggle to pay holiday bills from under an already ever growing mountain of debt.
Loneliness over the holiday is also a huge cause of suicidal ideation this time of year.
So what can we do to help? Well, in some ways we are already doing it by giving as generously as we can to programs like Christmas hampers, toy drives and food banks. That can help alleviate some of the immediate burdens and stresses.
But there are other things we can do. We can reach out to people we suspect are victims of family violence and let them know we are here, and that we care. We can check in and see how they are doing, and give them a safe place to come for a break from the stress of family life, a coffee break, until they are ready to take the next steps forward for themselves, and hopefully find a safer place to spend Christmas next year.
For those who we know are alone, it means the world if someone knocks on their door on Christmas and invites them over to share the holiday meal, or brings them over a plate if they don’t feel comfortable coming over in person.
John Donne once said, “No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent.”
Christmas is about supporting one another as a family, as friends and as neighbours. There is something each of us can do.
