Emotional Triggers from Christmas Past

Before I share my proverbial heart on my sleeve, I have to ask—have you finished the Christmas Christian Fiction Scavenger Hunt? There are 26 of us participating, and the prizes total over $500 in Amazon gift cards. You do NOT want to miss out. CLICK HERE to START.

You only need to watch the news or scroll your social media feed to see Christmas is not always the most wonderful time of the year. I was listening to my Pandora Christmas station when a song came on and it took me back not only to the movie, but the broken place I was in.

It was the year everything bottomed out. We had a chronically ill baby we’ nearly lost. My dad passed away, and it happened right when my husband got a job 300 miles away from everything and everyone I knew. During the holidays we returned for a visit, and it was beyond surreal. The grief choked everything out of us.

The movies are an escape for me, and that year I wanted to find a theater and disappear into the seat. I was numb. There were two movies that released that year that not only let me disappear, but gave me a bit of healing and hope I was going to make it.

Julie

Elf was the first movie and I completely fell for Buddy’s charms as he sought his dad and a place to belong. For an hour and a half I forgot my grief, the fact I lived in a new state and didn’t know anyone, and that most of my awake moments were wishing I was asleep, and when I should have been asleep, I was awake. I felt joy. I was lost in the story and tine innocence that was Buddy’s story.

Every time I see the movie, which you know is often because it plays all the time, I’m taken back to that year. And the movie holds up. I still love the music, the quotable quotes, the outfits, all of it. When Santa’s sleigh flies over the Big Apple, I tear up. This time, because my heart is full of whimsy.

The second movie was The Polar Express. Again, I entered the theater absolutely broken. My heart was heavy that I started crying pretty much from the opening scene. The visuals were stunning. I remember everything on that screen was just a masterpiece It was so beautiful. When the kids received their hot chocolate, I sat in my seat and sobbed. Thankfully, the screening was during the day when most people were at work, so the theater was empty. It wouldn’t have mattered. When they reached the North Pole, I was transported, mesmerized, and my eyes were puffy from crying not tears of pain, but the fact I was part of something beautiful.

Like Elf, the joy returns as soon as soon as the train engine starts in The Polar Express. Fifteen years later, I can recall that grief with little work. But I’m also on the other side of healing, and far removed from the gutted feeling I had those days. When I see these movies, I usually end up with a few tears. They trigger not the grief, but the sheer beauty they were in such a time of darkness.

I know the world considers these two movies contemporary classics, but for me, they are masterpieces. Beyond everything a movie critic would look for, they represent everything that stopped time and gave me what I desperately needed—hope.

How about you? Is there a song, movie, or even an object that takes you back to an emotional time?