I have been riding by the Waffle House on Christmas Eve for the last 30 years. Whether it’s 6 in the afternoon or midnight. It is always slammed on Christmas Eve. Again as I ride by tonight the place is swamped. For years the question of why has haunted me. Why are these people eating at Waffle House on Christmas Eve? It has bothered me so that I went directly to Waffle House #651 in Powdersville SC. and spoke with the manager. So why is it full on Christmas Eve? I guess because it’s open to start with. It’s open because life can be messy and people are complicated. Christmas isn’t perfect for everyone. For some it’s where you can walk in, find a seat, a waffle and a few minutes of peace.

After our conversation if you didn’t know before you realize quickly that Hallmark movies truly are total BS. A lot of people don’t have the picture-perfect family gathering on December 24th. Some are estranged. Some are grieving. Some work odd hours. Some just need a place that feels normal when everything else feels complicated. Waffle House on Christmas Eve is the unofficial sanctuary for people who don’t quite know where to be. When the other restaurants are dark and locked, the Waffle House glows like a low-budget star over a very ordinary Bethlehem. Always room at this inn. There is no angelic choir, just classic rock or country on the jukebox with the hum of the vent hood over the grill. No gold, frankincense, and myrrh—just bacon, coffee, and a side of grits. No polished wooden pews—just barstools bolted to the floor. Many of people inside are not the people from the Christmas commercials. There are no matching pajamas, no perfect cocoa, no slow-motion opening of perfectly wrapped gifts. Many of are the extras, the outtakes, the ones who didn’t make it on the holiday card. In many ways I see me.

As I get older I tend to appreciate life more. Health, my wife, my friends and family. I swore that I will never be one of those people eating at Waffle House on Christmas Eve—and yet as I age I can see myself sliding into the cracked vinyl booth, shrugging off the cold, trying not to think about whatever didn’t go according to plan this year.

Christmas can be such a lonely time for many. It can be lonely enough where you end up at a Waffle House drinking the coffee that taste like is tanked in waste from one of the reactors from the Savannah River Nuclear Site but there you are anyway……by yourself. Even being by yourself on Christmas Eve you can always go to a place, a place where not everyone knows your name but a place where someone calls you “hon” and that coffee never runs out. Kiss your loved ones and have a Merry Christmas everyone.