Every December, I hear a similar disheartened confession from sincere people: “I just can’t enjoy Christmas anymore.” Why?. There has been a loss. A chair at the table is empty. A diagnosis has intruded. A marriage has fractured. A child has wandered. Grief has a way of making Christmas lights feel artificial, and carols sound superficial. For many, Christmas has become painful precisely because life is painful.That instinct is understandable, but it is also mistaken. To say that suffering makes Christmas unenjoyable is to misunderstand what Christmas is. Christmas is not designed for people whose lives are neat, settled, and serene. It is not a celebration for those who have escaped sorrow and live idealized lives. Christmas is God’s answer to suffering, not a celebration that requires its absence.

Christmas is Not an Escape from Reality

We have slowly reshaped Christmas into a longing for an imagined world that never existed. The culture speaks of “the magic of Christmas,” and movies guarantee us that during Christmas time, everything works out. When our lives are disrupted, and they always are, we conclude that Christmas has been ruined, and we long for a return to a better time that is now gone. Of course, we tend to erase the difficulties of that time from our memories. But the Bible presents Christmas not as an escape into an idyllic past, but as God’s gracious invasion into a broken present.

Christmas is God’s Invasion in a Broken World

The prophetic promises surrounding the incarnation are born in crisis. The first gospel word in Scripture comes in Genesis 3:15, spoken into the wreckage of Eden. Adam and Eve have sinned. Shame, fear, and exile now define the human condition. And there, before anything is repaired, God promises a coming Redeemer who will crush the serpent. Christmas begins not in nostalgia but in promised judgment and grace.

Isaiah’s promise of a virgin-born son is no different. It is delivered during a national panic. Enemies surround Judah. Its leader, Ahaz, is anxious, compromised, and afraid. He trusts the power of wicked Assyria over God’s covenant promises. Into that instability God declares, “The Lord himself will give you a sign: the virgin will conceive, have a son, and name him Immanuel” (Isaiah 7:14). The promise is not given because life is calm, but because it is unraveling. God-with-us is announced precisely because of our neediness.

When we reach the Gospels, the same pattern holds. The birth of Jesus is wrapped in hardship. Mary’s obedience carries social risk and personal cost. Joseph’s righteousness leads him into confusion and sleepless nights. The journey to Bethlehem is forced by imperial decree. There is no room, no privacy, no control. The Son of God is born into inconvenience, vulnerability, and among the stench of animals.

And then there is Herod. Christmas is immediately opposed. The birth of Christ provokes violence, fear, bloodshed, and mass mourning. Mothers weep. Children die. The Bible does not shield us from this darkness because it wants us to understand something essential: God did not wait for a safe, sanitized world to send His Son. He sent Him into danger.

Immanuel Means God-with-us in Our Suffering

This truth is why the common sentiment, “I can’t enjoy Christmas because I’m suffering,” gets things backward. If Christmas required emotional stability or circumstantial happiness, it would be meaningless for most people in most places in human history. Christmas is not about preserving a feeling. It is about proclaiming a fact: God has come near in the midst of our pain and suffering.Turning Christmas into a celebration of an idealized life misses the point entirely. Christmas is not fundamentally about recreating a perfect family moment or recovering a lost sense of childhood wonder. It is not about pretending everything is fine. It is about the stunning truth that God entered a world where everything was not fine. In fact, it is why He came.

Christmas Doesn’t Erase Pain–It Redeems It

The incarnation tells us that suffering does not disqualify us from hope. It is the very context in which our sorrow meets hope. The Son of God does not stand at a distance offering advice. He takes on flesh. He grows up under the weight of a fallen world. He becomes acquainted with grief. The manger points toward the cross. 

Christmas does not deny loss; it addresses it. It does not silence grief; it redeems it. The promise of Immanuel does not mean we will never ache. It means we will never ache alone. God-with-us is the answer to the deepest wounds of the human heart.

Why Christmas Exists at All

So when you hear someone say, or you think, I just cannot enjoy Christmas because life hurts, know that the gospel responds: That is precisely why Christmas exists! It is not a celebration for those who have everything under control. It is a declaration of hope for those who know they do not.

Christmas does not ask us to manufacture cheer. It calls us to trust a Savior who entered our suffering to defeat it. The joy of Christmas is not found in pretending the world is whole, but in knowing that the One who will ultimately make all sad things come untrue has already come.

Christmas is for sufferers. Always has been. And that is why it is “good news of great joy” for all people (Luke 2:10).