What Christmas Means to Me: The Miracle of Life and a Love That Lives Forever
The messages found in a Christmas voyage during the Korean War and the ending scene in "Moulin Rouge!" capture what Christmas means to me (and always should have)
Christmas (and the holiday season in general) means so many different things to so many different people, and unfortunately, those differences often become the focus of attention in our polarized society, rather than the universal themes that should draw us together.
For myself, the meaning and significance of Christmas in my own life have changed and evolved greatly over the years, in both positive and negative ways. As a young child, the commercialization (free toys!) and secular qualities (Santa, decorations, lights, television specials) captured my imagination. From my teens to my early adulthood when I was a devout practicing Catholic, it was the religious qualities that dominated my focus (Nativity scenes, Midnight Mass, joyous and spiritual Christmas hymns). As a husband and parent, I often found myself balancing those two realms, trying to provide the joyous material qualities for my young children while preserving the holy religious qualities for myself and family. It was sometimes an unsuccessful effort, as the stresses of the former and preoccupation with the latter blinded me to the overall meaning of the season: the simplicity of life and love.
At this later stage of life, I feel like I finally get it. Christmas is not about any one thing but about all things that make our lives so many emotions wrapped in one: a reminder that through the dark days of winter (and our flaws and failures and hardships as humans) comes the lightness of human existence through the miracle of life and endless quality of love.
Two examples brought that to light for me in recent days. One was a story I read in the Washington Post about “The Christmas Miracle” of 1950 during the darkest days of the Korean War, when a U.S. Merchant Marine captain by the name of Leonard LaRue rescued 14,000 Korean refugees — who seemed destined for certain death — in an unarmed freighter designed to hold only 59 people, somehow navigated mine- and submarine-filled waters, and delivered them to safely at Geoge Island on Christmas Day. Instead of losing lives, the voyage actually added them, as five babies were born on board during the trek, in circumstances not unlike that of the Christmas story of the Son of God born in a stable because there was no room at the inn. When the ship, the Meredith Victory, arrived at Bousan on Christmas Eve, U.S. soldiers gave each of the 14,000 refugees one tiny candy droplet as a Christmas gift, the most simple of gifts that was but a symbol of the greatest: life itself and the efforts that people of good heart and will to save the lives of strangers even amid great danger to themselves.
The fact that these 14,000 Korean refugees were not “Christians” or had probably never celebrated the rituals of “Christmas” mattered not at all. Their story was the story of Christmas in all its splendor.
Korean refugees aboard the Meredith Victory
And Captain LaRue, whose Christmas miracle voyage was not about any one religion but about the universal values of life and love, would go on after retiring from the Merchant Marine to become a Catholic monk. In 2019, 99 percent of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops voted to confer sainthood upon him.
The other example is the movie “Moulin Rouge!,” which is not on anyone’s Christmas list but has a message that perfectly captures the meaning of the holiday, especially for those who are struggling with the loss of loved ones during the holiday season (I know of many such people this year).
I happened to pick up a DVD of the movie for 50 cents at a thrift store a few weeks ago and decided to watch it the other day. I have to admit that I dozed off halfway through (it’s been a busy, long week), but woke up in time to watch the poignant ending, with a heartbroken Christian at his typewriter batting out the story of his love for Satine, who had died in his arms. The movie is largely about the superficial, bawdy revelry found in Paris during the turn of the 20th century, but it ends with Christian’s story that could just as easily been written about Christmas itself.
“A story about a time, a story about a place, a story about the people, but above all things, a story about love. A love that will live forever.”
It took longer than it should have, but I’ve found that regardless of one’s faith (or whether they have any faith at all), and regardless of the materialism that so often consumes the season, Christmas is really about the story of Captain LaRue’s voyage during the Korean War and Christian’s story of Satine. It’s about the miracle of life and the love that springs from life and lives forever, even if the people we love don’t. Long after Christ’s death, Satine’s death, the deaths of those 14,000 refugees, the stories they all represented about life and love live on.
Christian (Ewan McGregor) holds the dying Satine (Nicole Kidman) in his arms in “Moulin Rouge!”
In those two things, we can find the light of joy through the darkness of life’s sadness, hardship and struggles. We can find the true meaning of Christmas.
Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays. Joy to the World. Peace on Earth.
Thank you for this beautiful and heartfelt post. It's easy to forget the meaning of Christmas amid the mass consumerism of the holiday, but to me, at its best, it's a reminder to open our hearts to family, friends and all of humanity, to let love in. Happy holidays to you and yours!
Merry Christmas Craig!