The cultural trappings of Christmas are not an outer manifestation of an inner reality. They’re all there is. Credit: THE STRANGER

The cultural trappings of Christmas are not an outer manifestation of an inner reality. They’re all there is.

The cultural trappings of Christmas are not an outer manifestation of an inner reality. They’re all there is. THE STRANGER

My closest friend in the world lay next to me a day after her son died and asked me to sing her a song. To my horror, I couldn’t think of one. Finally she murmured, “Just do ‘Jingle Bells,'” and so I did. That was the day I realized that Christmas songs have nothing to do with Christmas. They’re signs of a familiar world implanted within us.

My friend needed a signal from the world she could barely remember, the world where the rest of us were still living. I was in danger of losing her, and “Jingle Bells” was all I had to save her for that moment. Remember life? Jingle all the way.

Jen Graves (The Stranger’s former arts critic) mostly writes about things you approach with your eyeballs. But she’s also a history nerd interested in anything that needs more talking about, from male...