How to Spend Christmas Alone: Seven Positives to Spending Christmas Alone

I was inspired to write this post for many reasons, but mainly, because of one person—a content creator. I began following this creator several years ago. I’m not going to list his/her name because he/she does not like being singled out for doing good deeds or blessing others. I’m sure this person is not alone in doing this type of thing, but he/she is the person that I’ve had personal interactions with.

On each major holiday, this creator has a live broadcast to spend part of his/her day with his/her followers and anyone else who tune in. The reason he/she does it is to provide an opportunity for those spending the holiday alone to have someone to chat with and feel less lonely, even if it is for a short while. Although I’m usually not alone on major holidays, I like to tune in to lend my voice and help spread cheer if I can. But this year, I got to thinking. Perhaps it was because I was having a not-so-great day and the weather was gloomy. And anytime I start feeling sorry for myself (especially over something minor and petty), I get irritated. I began wondering what could I do that would be productive. That’s when my mind floated to Christmas and all the positives associated with it.

Over the past several weeks, I’ve written many holiday posts. However, the one topic that I did not cover, and one that I don’t think many people do, is that spending Christmas (or any major holiday) has positives and may not be all that bad despite what all the holiday movies may suggest. A person may elect to spend the holidays alone, and this choice doesn’t make him/her a Grinch or a Scrooge. And even if the decision to be alone on Christmas isn’t by choice, it still does not have to be viewed as a negative. I think the positives deserve to be highlighted.

No fighting over the remote. Watch whatever you want.You don’t have to change out of your PJs or sleepwear. You can lounge around all day in your comfy clothes without having to make yourself presentable.Sleeping in. Ah! It can feel good to catch up on much-needed sleep or rest if you’re a person who has been scurrying around like a worker ant. Last year, I saw on social media that an associate posted to her status for no one to contact her for the day. She stated that her children were grown; therefore, no one in the house would be waking up early. While honest, I felt her statement was a bit rude and unnecessary. If she didn’t want to be bothered, all she had to do was shut her ringer off. Her closest friends would already know not to stop by unannounced, and strangers or persons not that close to her likely wouldn’t see her social media post anyway. But that’s just my opinion that is neither here nor there. The point is, she was choosing solitude for the day.No awkward situations and conversations. I haven’t encountered this for many, many years, but growing up, it was a frequent occurrence. I came from a large family (at least, on one side), and Christmas Day—more specifically, Christmas morning—was gift exchange day. My father had taken it upon himself to be Santa. No, he didn’t dress up, but he was the person who rounded up all the gifts and delivered them to all of the relatives. And it was an ordeal being sure all the presents got to the right recipient. There was an order in how the gifts were loaded into the car, with the first stop being the last presents packed. Now, it never helped that my mother, the designated gift wrapper, waited until Christmas morning to wrap the relatives’ gifts. This always threw a kink in the departure time and in packing. Inevitably, she would go into a hissy about being rushed. Then, because everyone was related, some relatives may be at other relatives’ homes which, of course, meant we’d have to dig through the pile of gifts in the car to give those relatives their gifts. And here’s where the awkwardness really began. The relatives would feel bad for accepting a gift and not having one to give in return. Or because there were so many presents, gifts were misplaced. Frequently, this led to long scavenger hunt-type searches. In desperation, gifts would be regifted on the spot—literally, taking a present recently unwrapped, walking into the next room, rewrapping it, and giving it to someone. Or because there were so many relatives, a person accidentally was overlooked and didn’t get a gift. I didn’t mind not getting gifts. It never hurt my feelings. But oh, the gossip and big deal made.

One year, my mother asked what I had received from one of my relatives. When I told her nothing, she initially thought I was horsing around. Once she recognized that I wasn’t, it was as if Chornobyl had melted. Oh, my goodness! She was on the phone telling this relative and that one how I hadn’t gotten a gift. Eventually, it got back to the relative who hadn’t gotten me a gift, and he approached me about it. It was really awkward. I was made to feel as if I were begging for a gift. As a side note, he never gifted me a present that year, and there have been plenty of years after that he’s neglected to gift me anything. I mean, I get it. Things are expensive. It’s fine. Once I reached adulthood, I put my foot down and made it clear to my mother not to ask me anything about who I receive presents from or give to.

Another big issue was mislabeled gifts. As a child, I was taught to always say thank you and show gratitude for any gift received regardless of how tacky or how much I disliked it. Due to the family being large, it almost always happened that someone was given the wrong gift. However, sometimes, the receiver does not always know that he/she has been given the wrong gift. So, I would have to pretend to like something not meant for me. Then, the giver would hesitate to take it back because I liked it so much. Then, it would have to be re-wrapped, and usually, there wasn’t any wrapping paper left. So, we kids would have to dig through the torn paper in the trash to find a piece big enough to recycle. It was a whole mess.

Yet, the worse was when my father decided that one of my brothers should be Santa and I had to maintain my “elf” role. At least, with my father, I had a buffer. He could have extended conversations with the older relatives. My brother, although much older than me, would push me forward to do all the talking. He would only grin at their questions and barely say two words. I was so happy when all of that stopped being a thing. Unfortunately, I was not delighted as to why it stopped. When the older relatives began passing away, other relatives who lived away stopped visiting on Christmas. When my brother got married, he handed the Santa wrings back to my father, and when my father passed, no one took up the slack. I’m ashamed to say, I purposefully didn’t undertake the task. Something that should have been fun was not. This brings me to the next point.

Not subjugated to reindeer games, thus, no arguing. As the saying goes, it takes two to have an argument. We used to play Dirty Santa at work until after the game ended and people complained about the gift they received. The irony here is that there was a $15.00 maximum spending cap. No one should expect a Mercedes for that amount. Yet, they did, or they gripe that the gift wasn’t the max amount. Here’s a funny (and not in a good way). One worker, who was very thrifty, took advantage of the Bath & Body Works 75% off sale. Their gift was a full-size lotion and bath gel. Regularly priced, either of these items came close to the $15.00 cap, but because of the sale, the combined cost was less than half of the max. So, while the value of the gift exceeded the spending cap, some workers felt it wasn’t enough due to the sales price. Workers began leaving on the price tags to prove the retail value of the gifts, and later were called out for being tasteless. Eventually, people just began buying gift cards. Well, what’s a Dirty Santa game if everyone is exchanging $15.00 gift cards? As expected, with each year, fewer workers participated until it all finally was discontinued. Again, what should have been a fun activity was ruined. A person who is alone can avoid such nonsense.The ability to focus on what’s important. I’ve spent a lot of time discussing the commercialism of Christmas. For religious people, Christmas is a time to focus on spirituality. Being alone may give a person time to meditate, pray, or read scripture uninterrupted by the outside world.Oneself is the best gift giver. Take time to pamper yourself. A close friend has a job requiring that he be on his feet a lot. He works long hours and generally doesn’t have a chance to soak his feet. However, this Christmas, that is the gift he’s giving himself. He bought himself a foot spa and plans to watch classic comedies while having an at-home foot massage. He stated he wouldn’t be comfortable doing this with other people watching him. Another friend stated that she plans to spend the day reading because she never has a break when she can read uninterrupted.

And that brings this post to a close. What did you think? What is your take on the subject? Do you agree or disagree? Did you find this information helpful or informative? Did you learn anything new, or did it change your opinion? Let me know your thoughts in the comment section. Also, let me know if you would like me to cover more of these types of topics or dive deeper into this one. If you like this post, please click the like button and share it. Your feedback allows me to know the content that you want to read. If you’re not following me on Creole Bayou blog, what are you waiting for? There’s always room at the bayou.

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Author Bio

Genevive Chamblee resides in the bayou country where sweet tea and SEC football reign supreme. She is known for being witty (or so she thinks), getting mushy watching pet adoption commercials, and preparing home-cooked Creole meals that are as spicy as her writing. Genevive specializes in spinning steamy, romantic tales with humorous flair, diverse characters, and quirky views of love and human behavior. She also is not afraid to delve into darker romances as well. Genevive believes in variety, equality, and representation of all and is willing to tackle difficult subjects that may be shunned in many romance novels.