This December just hits different. While the headlines scream chaos and Project 2025 threatens to roll back hard-won rights, communities across the U.S. are still finding ways to light up the darkness—literally and figuratively.
You remember what happened when the Global Gag Rule snapped back into place last time. Reproductive healthcare crumbled worldwide. Transgender healthcare quickly got targeted and immigrant families got separated. Remember how environmental protections vanished overnight? This time, they’re aiming bigger.
The difference now? We’re not the same movement we were before. We’re smarter, stronger, and way more connected. While they’ve been planning rollbacks, we’ve been building power. Every reproductive justice victory, every successful voter registration drive, every transgender life saved by gender-affirming care, every family reunited. That’s proof of what we can do together.
At FUNKY BROWN CHICK, we’ve always been about creating spaces where all ways of ‘being’ can thrive. When forces try to dim one community’s light, they threaten us all. That’s why we’re especially feeling the power of December’s overlapping celebrations this year. Whether you’re lighting candles, sharing meals, or simply taking a moment to breathe, you’re part of a beautiful tradition of communities coming together to celebrate resilience and restore our collective spirit.
As the calendar turns to 2025, December’s traditions remind us that renewal isn’t just about fresh starts. It’s about carrying forward the wisdom of those who’ve lit the way before us. Every candle lit, every principle honored, every gathering shared becomes fuel for the work ahead.
Our FUNKY BROWN CHICK, Inc. team is a diverse team that celebrates all different kinds of things and maybe nothing at all. And that’s perfectly ok! Perhaps you’re like us. Either way, no matter what we celebrate (or don’t), we all need rest!
This post is about how we need that rest to keep fighting for what we’re doing.
FUNKY BROWN CHICK is Closed December 25-January 1
Our firm honors all spiritual journeys—Christians, Muslims, Jews, atheists, agnostics, pagans, Hindus, and everyone else. You’re free to choose your own faith path or none at all. Part of honoring those journeys includes us closing down for a bit.
Our doors will be closed December 25th through January 1st as we join millions taking a collective breath before 2025 begins. You can reach us at smile@funkybrownchick.com or give us a call at +1 (202) 643-3492 before our break starts. Our team will make sure urgent matters are handled before we step away to rest and recharge.
This pause is more than just practicing what we preach. Although we strive to always do just that. As a progressive, woman and Black-owned firm that champions worker rights and human dignity, we believe rest is resistance.
And in the New Year, we’ll need that energy to help empower organizations like yours to keep pushing for progress!
Ancient Resistance, Modern Fight: What These Holidays Really Mean
Let’s talk about what these December celebrations really mean. While Christmas has Christian roots, its spirit of radical compassion echoes far beyond religious boundaries. The story at its heart? A refugee family seeking shelter, a healer who stood with society’s outcasts, a voice that challenged empire and oppression. Sound familiar? Today’s faith leaders are carrying that torch – from rabbis defending abortion rights to interfaith coalitions fighting for immigrant justice. Now that’s the kind of holy work we can get behind.
This year, Hanukkah’s lights burn alongside Christmas candles. Different paths, same destination: a reminder that resistance takes many forms, and miracles often come from refusing to let our light go out.
Then there’s Kwanzaa, offering us a blueprint for collective liberation through its seven principles. When Dr. Maulana Karenga created this celebration in 1966, he knew what we’re learning now – that unity (umoja), self-determination (kujichagulia), collective work (ujima), cooperative economics (ujamaa), purpose (nia), creativity (kuumba), and faith (imani) aren’t just nice ideas. They’re survival strategies.
Why Rest is Revolutionary: Meeting 2025’s Challenges at Full Strength
The fight of our lives is coming in January. Project 2025 isn’t playing around – they’ve already mapped out their playbook for dismantling reproductive rights, voting access, LGBTQ+ protections, and environmental safeguards. That inauguration in January? It’s the starting gun for their sprint backward.
As 2024 closes, these celebrations remind us that liberation work moves like waves – sometimes advancing, sometimes receding, but always moving when we push together. From Wounded Knee to Stonewall, from Japanese internment camps to reproductive rights battles, every generation faces its pivotal moments. The constant? Communities finding strength in each other, in rest, in resistance.
That’s why we’re not just closing our doors on December 25th because it’s a federal holiday. We’re claiming this time because rest itself is resistance. Whether you’re lighting candles, breaking bread, or simply breathing deep, you’re part of a long tradition of communities saying: Our time belongs to us. Our joy is non-negotiable. Our rest fuels our revolution.
And that’s exactly why rest isn’t optional right now – it’s strategic. Burnout won’t protect abortion access. Exhaustion won’t secure voting rights. Running on empty won’t keep transgender kids safe or help migrant families or save our planet. The system wants us tired. It wants us scattered. It wants us too drained to fight back.
Not on our watch. When we return in January, the real work begins.
So we’ll see you then! Need some inspiration for your own rest revolution? Our “Summer Lovin‘” post breaks down how European-style time off can spark joy and creativity, while “We Decolonized Business Hours” shows you how to push back against the 24/7 grind and set boundaries that actually work for you. Because if you’re thinking about how to show up stronger in 2025, maybe it’s time to rethink when you show up at all.
