Blue Christmas (not the song)

Neal Whitman nwhitman at AMERITECH.NET
Fri Dec 13 05:14:26 UTC 2013


I got our neighborhood newspaper today and after looking through the
Police Beat, saw an announcement for the various Christmas services at a
local church. One of them was for "Blue Christmas (for those whom
Christmas is a difficult time to celebrate in the traditional fashion)".
I was first and foremost interested in the prepositional cannibalism
that eliminated the second "for," and took a picture to remind myself
about it later. I also thought the title "Blue Christmas" was pretty
clever: easily understandable and memorable, as well as a pretty good
idea for a service. Then I noticed another church announcement, with
various Christmas services, on the opposite page, and in between
"Christmas Cantata" and "Christmas Eve Service" was "Blue Christmas,"
this time without any explanation. So apparently, this is "a thing" (as
they say). Some Googling brings up a 2005 hit as the earliest, from a
Pennsylvania church. The link doesn't take you to the actual 2005
announcement; it takes you to the church's most current page, but here's
what's visible on the Google search page:


      Pennside Presbyterian Church
      <http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=books&cd=1&ved=0CDEQFjAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.pennsidepresby.org%2F&ei=AJWqUuLdK8mfrQGB2YGABA&usg=AFQjCNHWlCR6Avo3xehDdkkPYnT4J484PA&bvm=bv.57967247,d.aWM>

www.pennsidepresby.org/?
May 27, 2005 - 6PM - Temple Biblico - Spanish /Church Service/. Sunday,
December 8 2nd Sunday of Advent 9AM - Sunday School 10AM - Worship
Service 4:30PM - /Blue Christmas/ Service of Remembrance & Reflection.
Wednesday, December 11 12:30PM

COCA's earliest is from 2009, in an article about a church here in
Columbus, Ohio.

Neal

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