Christmas Alone – Tips to Help you Feel Festive!

Spending Christmas alone can be by choice, but it can also be because of circumstances beyond your control. If it’s the latter, and you don’t want to miss out on the festive feel, checkout out our suggestions below!

Be sure to have loads of things to look forward to on Christmas Day. Treat yourself to a movie or book you’ve been wanting to view or read for ages. Download or borrow/buy it the week before Christmas and squirrel it away until the 25th (no peeking!). Make or buy a special dessert and don’t touch it until Christmas dinner! Gift yourself a new item of jewellery, clothing, or pair of shoes, and wear them for the first time on the 25th ( you could even go for a walk in them).

Order a Christmas tree (or pick one up from the op-shop) and decorate it on Christmas morning while you listen to your favourite Christmas music.

Bring the house to life with Christmas lilies, scented candles, fairy lights, Christmas carols, and festive videos (take a snowy train journey to the Artic Circle or visit down-town New York to check out its Christmas window displays).

Bake up a storm! Pick out a couple of recipes ahead of time, gather the ingredients, and check out a local care home that would welcome baking as a gift (they may even have residents who would appreciate a Christmas day visit). Bake your goodies on Christmas morning, and head out with them to your chosen venue in the afternoon.

Go for a walk with a Christmas picnic in your back pack. Include delicious club sandwiches or camembert and crackers, a small flask of gluhwein, and Christmas cake. If you head to the beach or a park, you’ll be almost certain to find children enjoying their latest Christmas gifts!

Become a Christmas dog minder, and share Christmas day with an animal friend. It’s a great excuse to go to the park or walk the town, enjoying the Christmas decorations. Ask your local vet if they know of anyone looking for a pooch sitter, or pop a notice on the supermarket notice board or in your community newspaper.

Volunteer to help out with cooking or serving Christmas dinner at a community gathering or church hub. Or take yourself along to share a community Christmas meal with others who would otherwise be alone. There’s no shame in having nowhere else to go on Christmas day – people are in the same boat for a whole range of reasons from being on holiday far from home, to experiencing family difficulties.

If you’re heading away on holiday, make Christmas Day the day you do the driving. Pop some carols on the car speaker and enjoy roads that are often quieter than any other day of the holiday period!

Attend a Christmas morning church service and enjoy the singing – you don’t have to be religious to join in the festive spirit.

Pre-arrange a Christmas call or video-link with friends and family – and have a glass of something delicious to toast the togetherness.

Book yourself on a Great Walk, or hike to a DOC hut where you know there will be others to keep company with on Christmas day.

Grab your mobile phone and snap 20 different photos that say ‘Christmas’ in your town or neighbourhood.

Write your New Year’s resolution list, and make one of the resolutions happen early – on Christmas Day!

Take a 20 minute walk and find 5 people to say “Happy Christmas” to!

Improve your mood by watching a comedy movie.

Christmas Day can come alive, even if you’re alone. Make an effort and feel the difference!