Merry Christmas to all of my Christian readers. At the holidays, people often wax especially nostalgic for times gone by. The American Heritage Dictionary defines “nostalgia” as a “sentimental yearning for the past.” Some definitions make nostalgia sound sad, as in “homesickness” and “bittersweet.”
Nostalgia can apparently be helpful, though, especially to people who are lonely. This is not too surprising, given what we know about loneliness. Xinyue Zhou and Ding-Guo Gao from Sun Yat-Sen University, along with Constantine Sedikides and Tim Wildschut from the University of Southampton found that their loneliest participants appeared to be the most nostalgic [1]. Even more interesting, when these researchers induced feelings of nostalgia in participants, the result was increased feelings of social support.
The Intrepid Competitors Take the Field
I am blessed with a wonderful family, and even though we can’t always be together (Kristin is currently stationed in Iraq), I feel a lot of social support. We are missing my mom, who passed away last March, and my brother, who passed away in August, so yes, the bittersweet aspects of nostalgia are there as we consider Christmases past.
We enjoy some traditions (we have our childhood stockings hung at the fireplace), but we like to start new ones, too. Some of these are food related, like the blueberry raisin cinnamon rolls we had for Christmas breakfast last year and decided to do annually. Yesterday, we tried out another new tradition–a family shot put contest. Okay, that’s not something you see everyday, so some explanation is in order. Mr. F was a track and field All-American at UCLA and had their discus record for some ten years, Kristin threw the shot and discus in high school and at West Point, and Karen was a 4-time All-American and holds the shot records for the USC Trojans. So I was at a bit of a disadvantage. Karla was throwing a 12 lb. shot (I was using the women’s standard 4k), and she beat me anyway! Nonetheless, the competition was heroic. Yes, I did come in last, but it was great fun! Now if we can start a minigolf classic, I might have a chance! And maybe memories of these times together will get our children over a rough bump or two down the road.
1. Zhou, X., Sedikides, C., Wildschut, T., & Gao, D-G. (2008). Counteracting loneliness: On the restorative function of nostalgia. Psychological Science, 19(10), 1023 – 1029.
