How to Write Your Way Through a Blue Christmas or Winter Blues

December 22, 2021  /  Aine Greaney

Yesterday, on the winter Solstice, my essay, “Blue Christmas? You’re Not Alone” was published at “The Wisdom Daily.”

The piece is about how, for many of us, this time of year is more about loss than celebration.

Now, considering that this blog is intended to give writer tips and advice, I suppose you could say that it’s not really a fit here. The essay is not about the writing craft, and it doesn’t offer any advice on personal essay writing.

Yet, the piece is a lesson in how, sooner or later, we get to write what’s really important to us.

I’ve wanted to write this essay for years. And now, in just three rounds of writing and drafting and re-writing, I have.

And, if I’ve spent many pre-Christmas seasons feeling blue or sad, I’ve countered that feeling by writing in my journal.

In fact, for the past 10 or more years, I can’t remember a Christmas morning when I didn’t take my coffee upstairs (or one year, I even got to sit outside) to write.

It’s become my own personal holiday ritual. It’s brought me many small moments of joy. See the linked blogs below for tips on how to write during sad or stressful times.

Here’s an excerpt from the essay:

“‘Finally,” I remember thinking, as I snapped a photo of the (blue Christmas church service) date and time. “Someone is publicly acknowledging that, for some of us, the holidays are not all merry and bright. Instead, every day in December is a tidal pull downward and inward, toward some in-born sorrow.’”

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