Daily Herald opinion: Blue Christmas services offer a much-needed sanctuary space this holiday season

For many, the holiday season is festive, joyful and merry.

But for many, it’s not.

For many, the holiday season is filled with sorrow and loneliness due to the loss of a loved one or other personal difficulties. Those who are grieving can feel especially alone at a time when families are coming together to celebrate, and it can be difficult to find a place to appropriately express feelings of loss or sadness when the expectation around Christmas is to smile, be cheerful and enjoy every last bit of it.

But some wonderful suburban churches are opening their doors to help those who feel lost during the holidays, as correspondent Marie Wilson wrote in our Sunday story “Comfort and hope: Blue Christmas services offer solace for those struggling through the holidays.”

And what a wonderful thing these Blue Christmas services offer.

“It’s a service of song, prayer, quiet reflection — but really, it’s mostly togetherness. So people know, you’re not alone. It’s OK to feel what you feel. God is present,” said the Rev. Liz Patz, pastor of St. Paul’s United Church of Christ in Elgin.

We love that churches across the suburbs welcome people and encourage them to feel their feelings. To accept their feelings. To acknowledge that the holidays might not be perfect, and that that’s absolutely OK.

With so much pressure surrounding us to feel merry and bright this time of year, and with so much emphasis on perfect decorations, perfect gifts and perfect holiday parties with perfect holiday party food, it’s comforting to know there’s a place to go where perfect happy feelings don’t need to be on display.

At churches in Wheaton, Naperville, Elgin and so many more throughout the suburbs, anyone is welcome to join a Blue Christmas service to sit in peace and just feel. Feel the sadness. Feel the grief. Feel the loneliness. And know that you really aren’t alone.

These services offer a community where those grieving can feel comforted by others experiencing similar emotions that are real, not wrapped in perfection, but in being human.

“It’s just good to have a place where you can be honest that Christmas isn’t quite what you think it is, or that it’s challenging,” said the Rev. James Preston, lead pastor at Kingswood Church in Buffalo Grove, which has been offering an annual Blue Christmas service for more than a dozen years.

These services are often offered around the Winter Solstice and play with themes of darkness and light, and we hope you’ll find peace and solace if that’s what you need right now.

We hope these services remind you that you aren’t alone, and that so many others are going through something similar. We hope you feel seen while you are there, and we hope you leave feeling healed and soothed.

And thank you, churches, for offering these comforting spaces of togetherness that people desperately need during the holiday season.