For many, joy of Christmas can turn to depression

The music of Christmas speaks of joy, peace and good cheer with families feasting on favorite foods and finding beautifully wrapped gifts under the tree. Yet it is a time of year that plunges many into depression and despair.

Perhaps that happens when one is grieving a loss of family, friends or health. Or maybe you are newly divorced and won’t be spending Christmas Day with your children. Maybe your family lives in another part of the world, and you’ll be alone.

For others it may be an unconscious wish to have again the Christmas of childhood.

Or, maybe you did not have a magical childhood Christmas, and you keep wishing it could be.

You may find yourself gradually beginning to feel letdown, sad, depressed and disappointed. But here is where you have a choice.

You can choose to sit by yourself with your pain and feel sad and wait for someone to come to you, or you can consider who might need you and reach out.

Clyde Reid, author of “You Can Choose Christmas,” tells the story of something he witnessed. “I once saw a young woman pause beside an old lady in the back of a famous London church. The old lady was dozing. Her fingers stuck out through the holes in her ragged gloves. Without waking the old lady, the young woman quietly removed her own gloves and laid them in the aged lap and moved on.”

If you find yourself in a funk this holiday season, be aware it is not too late to make it a special time for someone else. In so doing you may discover some of the joy rubs off on you.