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Christmas For One
by Kristin Johnson
The holidays can be joyous if you’re alone, or they can be difficult. As with so much, your feelings depend on your personality, your circumstances, your childhood and in many cases on medical or psychological conditions.
Some tips to remember if you’re alone and without your children or support system:
• Take advantage of counselling services in your community, including from your local church, synagogue, temple, or other place of worship.
• Take time out for spirituality. You might attend services just to experience human contact and community. People are generally nicer at Christmas.
• Do all the things you wanted to do but couldn’t in your former life. Travel. Even in this post-9/11 world, you can visit faraway places. There are many tour groups for singles.
• Attend art walks, holiday concerts, lectures and movie screenings alone. Or invite a friend you haven’t talked to in a while.
• Volunteer—it’s a wonderful way to make friends, stay active and feel fulfilled.
• Go out to dinner alone! While women in particular feel uncomfortable, project an air of confidence. You are a strong, vital person. This doesn’t mean that you should go bar-hopping or take risks alone at night. But you have the right to ask for a table for one without feeling as though people are judging you. Most people are too preoccupied with their own lives to notice.
• Gather a circle of friends or people in the same situation—just make sure the evening doesn’t turn into a pity party.
• Don’t over drink, overeat or do drugs. It’s just not a good tradition.
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