Rejoice!

It's the mandatory mantra of Christmas.

After all, there are brightly colored lights, beautiful decorations, great sales, parties, programs, and parades. What's not to be joyful about?

But the flip side of the holiday season is a dour, depressive mood that settles on Christian and non-Christian alike. For the studious and the dubious, joy become mere jocularity, praise is only uttered by those who close their minds to realty, and thankfulness is just middle-class relief that life is still going on as always.

All of us know of or have experienced holiday depressions. We've all had a Christmas where nothing went right, a Christmas where no one came home, a Christmas where we had to work the night shift, a Christmas where someone was seriously ill. How is such a situation compatible …