How can I be wracked with fear during the Christmas season when we celebrate our savior’s birth and the beginning stage of God’s plan to save mankind?

For many believers, what should be the most wonderful time of the year is full of fear and dread and hopelessness. Instead of joy, love, and peace, the Christmas experience can be filled with loneliness, depression, and anxiety.   
  
A recent USA Today poll revealed that less than 50% of the population is fully relaxed and joyful. The other 50%? Stressed and depressed and joyless.
  
This can almost always be traced back to UNREALISTIC EXPECTATIONS of the ideal Christmas. You know, the picture we see on the Hallmark Channel with a guaranteed trip to the Christmas tree farm and a nostalgic gathering around the fire.
  
My antidote is to maintain a mindset of being present in everything with God’s deep meaning driving everything I think and do. A mindset of connecting with my church family and not “going it alone.” A mindset that interrupts negativity IMMEDIATELY.
  
For me, I want to be fully connected to God at Christmas and bathe in the deep truths surrounding our celebration. I want to let the things I do this time of year be AMPLIFICATION of these truths and not stand-alone events I try to “GET THROUGH.”
  
“Cast your cares on the Lord and he will sustain you; he will never let the righteous be shaken.” Psalm 55:22

HOW ABOUT YOU?

Which 50% are you with this Christmas? The joyless or the joyful?