Secular Carols 2: 'Lonely This Christmas'

Submitted by Alan Marsden on Sat, 19/12/2020 - 00:00

Lonely this Christmas was a 1974-75 hit song by British group Mud. They evidently spent more money on their glam-rock costumes than their official video, which just has the four of them sitting in various positions by a Christmas tree. Vocalist Les Gray is redolent of Elvis Presley, though without his stage charm and general charisma.

The singer expresses his grief at having separated from his partner; Christmas as a single man will be an unhappy experience:

It'll be lonely this Christmas,

Without you to hold.

It'll be lonely this Christmas,

Lonely and cold.

It'll be cold, so cold,

Without you to hold,

This Christmas.

Christmas is truly a lonesome time for many. Those whose marriages fail, whose loved ones have died, whose friends are occupied elsewhere, whose children have moved away, find it a difficult time. Tiers, lockdowns and restrictions will make 2020’s Christmas a lonelier time for many more. Coldness comes not from a broken boiler but from a horrible feeling of being all alone. TV adverts play a continual loop of happy families and romantic couples, telling us all how happy we should be. If Christmas is just a time for happy families, then the childless, the bereaved and the abused will truly feel isolated and cold. Yet the Christian gospel teaches that this festival is not about social gatherings or kinship groups, but heaven’s fantastic invasion of our enemy-occupied planet. God Himself invites we unfaithful ones to return home, to restore relationship and harmony to a broken and damaged affiliation. It will be lonely this Christmas if you spend it without Christ Jesus:

I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master's business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you.

John 15:15