The Grinch hated Christmas! The whole Christmas season!
Now, please don’t ask why. No one quite knows the reason.

It could be his head wasn’t screwed on just right.
It could be, perhaps, that his shoes were too tight.—Dr. Seuss, How the Grinch Stole Christmas

At the journal American Affairs, Musa al-Gharbi provides a comprehensive and balanced look at the personal damage inflicted on liberals by their political beliefs in an article titled “How to Understand the Well-Being Gap between Liberals and Conservatives.” A Daniel Bell Research Fellow at Heterodox Academy, Gharbi painstakingly sifts through the evidence showing that those on the left are less happy and suffer more from depression than their conservative counterparts, that people who are unwell are more attracted to leftist ideology, and that “compared to conservatives, liberals are much more likely to find meaning in their lives through political causes or activism.”

Gharbi concludes, “The well-being gap between liberals and conservatives is one of the most robust patterns in social science research.”

From these studies, we can only conclude that like Dr. Seuss’s Grinch the heads of leftist ideologues aren’t screwed on just right or that their shoes are too tight. The unbalanced and angry rants of politicians, journalists, and social media influencers following the recent election of Donald Trump to the presidency only reinforce this available data.  

Lest readers think I am picking on our leftist kin, let me add that some conservatives I know are just as obsessed with politics, devoting hours a day to the news and bobbing their heads in agreement with commentators who think just like themselves. Maybe they should try a larger shoe size.

With Christmas and Christmastide upon us, now is surely the perfect time to break this obsession with the political and to devote our attention instead to the personal, to our families and friends, and our own spiritual and mental well-being. Here are three gifts of the season to help us make this shift if we’re so inclined.   

Oranges

Search online for “Great Depression Christmases,” read some accounts of the children who lived through that economic disaster, and you’ll find mention made again and again of the orange they received on Christmas Day. Today we buy that fruit by the bagful without a thought, but during the Depression oranges were both expensive and rare. For an impoverished child in 1933, a single orange was a special Christmas gift. Note, too that few of these old-timers whine about the toys they didn’t receive. Instead, they speak of the gratitude they felt not only for the orange, but for a roof overhead and food on the table.   

This Christmas, put an orange in those stockings hanging above the fireplace as a reminder that their gratitude can be yours.

Custom and Ceremony

Christmas usually involves traditions of one sort or another. This man’s parents left a plate of cookies and a glass of milk for Santa on the kitchen counter, so he does the same on behalf of his children. This woman’s mother always served a roast at their Christmas meal, so she prepares the same for her family’s holiday table.

Over 500 years ago, English barrister and legal scholar Sir Edward Coke wrote, “the house of every one is to him as his Castle and Fortress as well for defence against injury and violence, as for his repose….” Our traditions, including those that frame our celebration of Christmas, help make that house a home, a haven for rest and a barricade against the political and cultural madness of our age.

If you’re looking to introduce some new customs into your home, take a look at Tina Donvito’s article “40 Christmas Eve Traditions That Create Merry Memories.” Here are ideas old and new to get you started, most of which can be practiced not only on Christmas Eve but into Christmastide.

Extend the season

Traditionally Christmastide, the Twelve Days of Christmas running from Christmas Day to the Epiphany, was marked by revelry and feasting. Today many Americans have turned that custom on its head, making Advent, once a time of fasting and prayer, into a hectic month of shopping, parties, and obligations. After December 25, exhausted by our pre-Christmas celebrations, we’re all too ready to toss the tree to the curb, ditch the carols, pack away the decorations, and blearily fall back into the grind.

If you find yourself worn thin by this frenetic build-up to the holiday, take some time this year to enjoy and celebrate the quiet side of our American Christmas season. Keep those decorations in place for a bit, throw a small get-together for friends, and spend some evenings reflecting on the past year and what 2025 may bring you.

Finally, whatever the state of your religious faith, take a few moments this Christmas to read the Nativity passages from the Gospel of Luke. In that narrative is the reason for those presents under the tree.