This was going to be a festive season. I had all these plans to reissue my Grumpy Santa cartoons to give an alternative view of the holiday season. I even decorated my Dogon ladder in anticipation of the holidays.
But after September 14, I lost that festive sense because I know that slamming Santa this year was not in the cards. All of us lost a collective sense that somehow Christmas was a time for joyous celebration. This is a wound that will take a long time to heal for us collectively, but for twenty-seven families this is a wound that will never heal.
Twenty children will not eagerly go to bed on Christmas eve to wait for reindeer hooves on the roof and the sound of those bells that reindeer have to wear or in anticipation of another holiday ;morning. Six families will have an empty chair at the table for a hero school teacher or caregiver who will not be coming home for dinner.
We should also remember that a family in New Hampshire will be missing their daughter and sister who apparently was trying to do the right thing for her child.
I don’t have the desire to run those cartoons this year; I just want to hug my two granddaughters and hold them a little tighter this Christmas eve. As for celebrating this holiday season publicly, I just want to play my most treasured Christmas hymn.
Philip Chen - Author/Cartoonist 
Blessings Phil—-this Christmas and always.
Thank you and may your holidays be filled with joy.
Thank you David, for sharing your thoughts with us as well. Best wishes for this holiday season and may the world have a clearer head as we go into the New Year.
Thank you for this Philip this was very touching…and you are so right……Sadness fills my heart for Newtown and little children who will not hear rein deer on the roof…..How sad is that……..and an empty chair at the table…..Merry Christmas my friend we will all keep our thoughts and our prayers and our hopes for healing in our hearts for Newtown.
Poignant post and hymn, thank you, Philip for sharing both. Sadly, WordPress.com permitted an ad directly below the hymn clip of men inside what looked like a car with bloody faces. I didn’t click on it so don’t know what it was for. But it startled me out of the thoughtful meditation your piece inspired. 🙂
I am sorry to hear about the inadvertent ad, but thank you for your comment
I know you have no control over the ads, was hoping WordPress.com might notice, too, and change it. You wrote well, thanks again for the moving piece.