My song today is ‘Blue Christmas’. This Christmas song was written by Billy Hayes and Jay W. Johnson and was most famously performed by Elvis Presley. It was first recorded by Doye O'Dell in 1948. It is a tale of unrequited love during the holidays and is a longstanding staple of Christmas music, especially in the country genre.
This Christmas will be a strange experience for all of us as we leave the basic restrictions of national lockdown for a few days to celebrate Christmas with some of our family. Our celebrations this year will amount to seeing our family again in a homely setting (after many months of absence) in which the government has provided guidelines that limit our capacity for killing each other, yet sanction permission of us to do so if we get too close. Because of the serious threat that some aged and medically vulnerable among us may not be alive next spring because of celebrating Christmas with our family this year in a five-day relaxation period, we are all becoming more aware of the consequences of allowing oneself to do what comes naturally to each of us; to kiss, hug and embrace those we love.
While each of us will make our own decisions in the freedom we will exercise with close family members, there will be many bereaved individuals who are still grieving the recent loss of a partner or a relative to this pernicious pandemic virus, or because of it (unable to have elective surgery which was cancelled). Then there will be those other deaths by various illnesses and tragic circumstances.
There will also be very lonely people this Christmas who live isolated existences or have just ended a loving relationship with another. There will also be those romantic couples who are separated from a loved one by circumstances beyond their control (serving soldiers abroad or North Sea Oil rig workers), and last but not least, there are the widows and widowers whose soulmate died of natural causes after having spent a long life happily together. People experiencing a recent bereavement may find that their grief is still too raw to be soothed by the words or deeds of thoughtful others. For all these people, in whichever category they fall, their Christmas will no doubt be ‘a Blue Christmas’.
Christmas greetings and love and peace. Bill and Sheila xxx