Many churches run Blue Christmas events in the le;ad up to Christmas as a time of contemplation, remembrance, comfort for people for whom Christmas will be a difficult experience, particularly because of loss, grief or separation. I’ve been involved in giving away blue stars at two churches – Rosefield UC as part of their anual Interactive Christmas event, and at Blackwood UC when we ran our Aussie Christmas in the Shed event on Christmas Eve. While the details were slightly different, the intent was the same.
At Blackwood UC, we handed out the blue stars at the end of an evening of music, story-telling and visuals that imagined the nativity in an Austrlian outback setting. Each household was asked to take home a star and hang it on their Christmas tree. The explanation went something like this. “Christmas is not a a happy time for everyone. For some people, Christmas is a time of loneliness due to family difficultes or separation. For some, it will be the first Christmas without a loved one. For others, Christmas advertising is a daily reminder that they are simply struggling to pay the bills and feed themselves. We invite you to hang the blue star on your Christmas tree as a reminder of those who will be feeling blue this Christmas. When you see it, we hope that the colour will remind you to pause and to think of or pray for people whom might be doing it tough over Christmas. We also hope that seeing the star might encourage you to make a phone call to someone needing some care, to offer an invitation to a meal, or to make a donation to someone in financial need this Christmas.”
As a church, we also hoped that the blue star would be a reminder, perhaps annually, of their connection with us. Perhaps it would even prompt conversation with visitors to their homes about why they had a blue star hanging on the tree.
The stars were bought from an online craft shop and spray painted by us.
Craig Mitchell