I live alone and will most likely be alone on Christmas (again) this year. I would like to spend Christmas with family, but we are not close.
What I do is lots of things that remind me of every happy Christmas feeling:
- I put up Christmas lights in my bedroom (!) so I can go to sleep with happy Christmas-y feelings.
- Go to Lessons and Carols at a local church. Sure, I will go alone, but I will enjoy it all the same.
- Am thinking of joining a group at a different local church that will be wrapping gifts for homeless and needy children.
- I will put out cookies and milk for Santa, just as I did when I was small.
- I'll lie in bed on Christmas Eve and remember how I used to stay awake all night waiting to hear Santa and his reindeer land on the roof.
- If possible, I'll drive through neighborhoods that are known to have extensive Christmas decorations.
- I'll watch my favorite Christmas movie, The Bishop's Wife (Cary Grant).
- If I can afford a tree, I'll put one up.
- I will hang my hand-made stocking, the one my aunt made me.
I don't like being home alone on holidays, because I miss my husband (who died in 2005)
How about making it a point to do all the Christmas activities you used to love to do together? You will think happy thoughts of him as you do so. There will be plenty of good memories.
This is really why I want to put out cookies for Santa this year. My brother and I put out cookies and milk (for Santa) and carrots (for the reindeer) every year. My father would, in the middle of the night, eat the cookies, drink the milk, and then write us a thank-you letter from Santa. My father passed away about six years ago. Putting out the cookies will be a happy way to remember him and include him in my holiday.
YES!!!!! Who cares if you live in a small place? Christmas is not a contest!