Empty Chairs: When Christmas Is Tinged With Nostalgia

Set table. Empty chairs. Broken relationships. Separate families. Christmas, a period of joy and reunions, is tinged with nostalgia, sadness, anguish, unhappiness. The light-heartedness typical of these dates no longer exists. We no longer perceive the joy from our chair.

Not anymore. Christmas is no longer that light always on, because someone is missing, because everything changes over the years and we lose that wonderful emotion that invaded us as children, we abandon the innocence that made us appreciate every little detail. Even the most infinitesimal banality was full of living magic that now resentment and absences do not allow us to see.

Why does sadness invade us in these moments? When the holidays approach and the preparations, gifts, decorations and the choice of a menu begin to take shape, memories fly and land in our minds. We cannot avoid it. The evocative power of Christmas makes us notice more absences, those decided at the table and those that have happened.

How many are we on 24? And the 25? Who comes? And where do I put myself?

How many are we on 24? And the 25? Who comes? Where do I sit? Inevitably, these questions arise in the presence of empty chairs that correspond to people who are not there, people who have moved away or who have died. Memories of past times, of times that now seem happier, fuller, more ours than those that are about to arrive and the present ones.

The distant people, those who life has put on another path, those who have chosen not to be there, those who have made themselves unwilling, those taken away by death. Those empty chairs, which no one physically occupies, accompany us on these dates to transfer suffering to the present moment.

A suffering that was anesthetized and asleep from the daily routine of life. Empty chairs hurt, fill our eyes with tears, fill our souls with pain and contained hugs that remain without a body to cling to.

Sure, they hurt. But in the empty chairs there is a space to embrace, to accept and to name without fear, because we can cry for the absence, but the occupied chairs deserve our smile.

It is not necessary to force ourselves to be cheerful, but it is good to seek a state of peace and calm. Fear, anguish and sadness are not eternal, even if they frighten us.

Empty chairs: Christmas is a contradiction

Christmas is a real contradiction. The magic generated by sharing good times clashes strongly with the affliction caused by absences, by the desire to see the deceased person, by remorse for an empty chair by choice or due to quarrels that have occurred over the years.

In this sense, it is very important that those present speak naturally, that this feeling is allowed to come out of the heart. Otherwise, the shadow of the empty chair will infect everyone with a contradictory mood and create an atmosphere of unspoken words.

We cannot avoid that some chairs remain empty, but we must remember that there are also occupied chairs, full of presence and love. Probably not all occupied chairs give us well-being, but this should not take away the importance of the others, the ones that make us feel good. We must remember that life will sooner or later separate us from the chairs we love so much today.

In these holidays, long awaited by someone and rejected by someone else, we must toast for everything we have. Because it is always good to raise our glasses and be grateful that our hearts are still beating. Let’s give the occupied chairs peace and remember the good times when empty chairs were still with us.

Now we just have to wish you wonderful Holidays, full of joy and happiness. Happy Christmas!