Christmas 2010

A small gale lashed the Island early this week, bitterly cold and driven in from the ocean with steady light snow that frosted woods and farm fields and stone walls, turning the Vineyard into a Currier and Ives print overnight, just in time for the winter solstice on Tuesday. Soft, mournful blasts from the Nobska foghorn blew across the Middle Ground, echoing faintly up and down the north shore, somehow more reminiscent of June than December.

Typically for the Island, by midweek the weather had moderated, with snow turning soft and the sun breaking through a long line of gray clouds marching along the horizon.

Today is Christmas Eve and Islanders are bustling about, doing their last-minute shopping in down-Island towns, stocking up on roasts and cheese, wine and chocolate and oranges for the long holiday weekend with family and friends. In Memorial Park in downtown Edgartown, a thousand white lights twinkle and sway in the dark, bare branches of tall trees, a cheerful replacement for leaves lost months ago in the winds of autumn. In Vineyard Haven harbor, look up: There are small Christmas trees nailed to the tops of the tall masts of the wooden schooners that are the very symbols of our maritime community.

Winter has arrived and the Vineyard is settling down for her long winter nap. Already there is no mistaking the season at hand: It has been cold, snowy and blustery. Outdoor fall chores that were put off until now will be put off permanently until spring. Hardy scallopers on the ponds have been driven ashore to patch their gear. The dog has ice balls in her paws. And where are the children’s boots and snow pants? We weren’t ready for this.

But then again, we always say that.

And beyond the business of Christmas — the Island is thankfully absent shopping malls with their stuffy air and canned, mind-numbing music — this is a time more than any other to pause and drink in the deep quiet in the shortest days of the year.

And to think about the Island and how it is doing in this time of so much turmoil in a world torn by wars and bitter politics, anger among races and tumbling economies. Where can the good be found? It’s an increasingly difficult question, even here at home where many people are struggling to survive.

A holiday newsletter went out early this month from the Martha’s Vineyard Donors Collaborative detailing some of the effects of the recession on the Island. The numbers paint a stark picture.

Unemployment continues to climb: just over thirteen hundred Vineyarders were unemployed in January a year ago, a thirty-six per cent increase over the previous year. More than seven hundred and fifty Islanders were unemployed in July of this year, a thirty-three per cent increase over the previous summer.

Affordable housing continues to be a serious problem: Nearly a hundred households were on the wait list for rental assistance late this fall; seventy-three received some kind of assistance.

Homelessness, virtually unheard of on the Island until the past few years, is on the rise: nineteen people were homeless this fall, a jump of thirty-six per cent over last year. Another twenty families did not become homeless thanks to financial support from the county that came from federal stimulus money. There is no funding available for that program this year, which means the problem is expected to be even more severe.

It appears that self-reliance, that steady hallmark of Island living, is increasingly falling beneath a shadow of unmet needs.

But still there is good news on this Christmas Eve.

Dozens of volunteers for the Red Stocking Fund have finished their annual work of wrapping and delivering hundreds of gifts that will go to the Island’s neediest children. Warm coats, hats and mittens, winter boots, books, bicycles and toys will help to make their lives better as the snow begins to fly and the cold seeps into the corners of life on the Island for the next few months.

To see a child be happy and well cared for — it’s hard to think of a better winter-warmer than that.

The late nature writer Hal Borland made the following note on December Twenty-Fifth in his collection of essays Book of Days: “In the voice of the wind today, I hear the words: ‘Peace. It has all been said.’ ”

The Gazette sends out warmest greetings to all our readers near and far for a very Merry Christmas.