The Most Nostalgic Time of the Year

Christmas is surely the most nostalgic time of the year (I can sing “It’s the most nostalgic time of the year!” since I don’t really think of it as the most wonderful time of the year).  Nostalgia is most strongly triggered by smell, touch, music, and weather.  Just think how much that applies to Christmas!  Peppermint, spruce, pine, hot chocolate, flannel, Christmas carols, church bells, jingle bells, snow, woodsmoke. These strong images evoke specific feelings and memories, and for most people, these are joyful and pleasant memories.  

Nostalgia can be fun and warm and beneficial.  If Christmas brings the joy for you, immerse yourself in the nostalgia and soak it up.  

But nostalgia all year round as a mindset can be crippling.  We have to be careful, especially as we get older, to not romanticize the past, idealize our memories, and live in nostalgia.  That will skew your life toward the past instead of the future.  We can use good nostalgia as a foundation for going forward.  Research has shown nostalgia can be used to improve mood, for increased social connectedness, and positive self-regard. 

But always longing for the past is different.  Full-out nostalgia stunts us.  Ecclesiastes 7:1 warns us:  “Do not say, ‘Why were the old days better than these?’  For it is not wise to ask such questions.”  The old days weren’t better, usually.  We may think they were because our minds edit our memories and idealize them.  Or the “old days” may have been better on the surface, but deep down, the issues we struggle with now were there.  

Job 29:1-6 expresses this lament by Job:  “How I long for the months gone by, for the days when God watched over me, when his lamp shone upon my head and by his light I walked through darkness!  Oh, for the days when I was in my prime, when God’s intimate friendship blessed my house, when the Almighty was still with me and my children were around me, when my path was drenched with cream and the rock poured out for me streams of olive oil.”  Job’s sorrow is real and he has justification for being in grief, but this passage is an example of romanticizing the past and wanting to go back.  

We need to want to go forward.  No matter what was good in the past, God has something else waiting for us ahead. 

So sing the Christmas carols loud and clear for all to hear.  Light the candles and drink the seasonal drinks.  Enjoy the good nostalgia and share that joy with others.  But then be ready to look ahead, anticipating what God is working out for our futures.  “‘For I know the plans I have for you,’ declares the Lord, . . . ‘plans to give you hope and a future.’”  Jeremiah 29:11.