What does Christmas mean to you?
I couldn’t make it home this Christmas—for the first time in years. I didn’t expect it to be so hard.
To make up for it, I said yes to nearly everything that turned up: practising for five weeks to carol in a park, a street party, countdown lunches and dinners, church service, new recipes.
I still couldn’t help missing my family intensely and I really wanted to connect to the joy of the season. I started to realise that I’d become so attached to spending Christmas in a certain way that it was taking me a while to just see the festival for what it is.
I thought about what Christmas means to me now and this is what I got: It is an invitation to love from where you are. To keep the love flowing towards yourself and others—whether you are in a manger or have kings and angels for company, whether you’re feeling teary or joyful. Not easy, particularly when a few days before Christmas Day, my plans fell apart.
So I came home from midnight mass ready to stay in and watch Love Actually. But then at 3am, one friend texted offering to cook us lunch, another grabbed coffee in the afternoon, and another caught a movie—so I ended up watching the credits roll at 2am on Dec 26 to “Spidey Bells”.
It’s been a busy day, a very unusual and impromptu Christmas—not the one I’m used to but one I am so thankful for—and I feel completely loved.
— Saumya Ancheri
