Without doubt Christmas can be a wonderful magical time.  Away from the commercial side, it can be a time where old wounds can be healed, rifts fixed and axe’s buried.  A time for families and friends to come together and share the joyous occasion.  Christmas is full of tradition and each and every family that celebrates this festive occasion will have its own set of customs that are often practised year in and year out. 

The difficulty with Christmas is we are expected to be happy.  We are expected to partake in the celebrations, to attend family gatherings, go to or give parties and over indulge in every sense of the matter.  Popular movies and television programmes depict everyone being happy at Christmas.  No matter what has happened or is going on, as Christmas approaches everyone forgets their troubles and woes and become, happy. 

Yet each and every one of us, at some time in our lives the Christmas season has been anything but a happy occasion.  Times when someone close has been seriously ill.  Or when someone has died.  Family fall-outs, financial hardships.  During these times it is difficult to embrace the joy and happiness we are all supposed to feel at this time. 

When we have experienced heartache, especially through death, occasions like Christmas remind us of what we haven’t got, what we have lost.  It make us yearn for our own family traditional, which can never be regained as a person who was a part of it has gone forever.