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So This Is Christmas, In Prison

This will be my 4th holly (not) jolly Christmas while incarcerated

Damian Delune
4 min readDec 23, 2024

Christmas and the holidays in general are always a struggle for those who are incarcerated. You’re locked away from your family and friends, if you have children you’re missing the joy of Christmas morning as they open their gifts from you and Santa. The scent of holiday baking. Pine or whatever your tree smells like. Decorating. The lights everywhere.

My wife loves Christmas lights. Sadly, due to the circumstances surrounding my arrest and initial incarceration in the county jail, she will probably always struggle with this time of year and Christmas light shows. The day we rolled up to the police department as requested (under the promise of, everything is fine, we just have a few questions), we had two small children in the car and plans to pick up my daughter when we finished there.

We were on the way to a local Christmas light show, and even though I have never been a fan of Christmas, my wife is, the kids are, so I was determined to take them to this show so they would be able to experience something that made them happy. For me, that’s what the holidays are about — making my family happy.

As I was arrested that evening, we never made it to the light show and because of everything that went on…

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Damian Delune
Damian Delune

Written by Damian Delune

Incarcerated writer sharing real stories about life on the inside, through my wife, Demeter Delune (editor, publisher, promoter, responder)

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