For some people, the holidays can be a really stressful time of the year. Not everyone has a family to spend it with or they live too far away to make it home. Here are some ideas for spending Christmas solo. If you are struggling with depression or anxiety check out my Holiday Mental Health Survival Guide.
Binge Watch
Have a lazy day and binge watch an entire TV or movie series. Try a classic movie series like Star Wars or Indiana Jones. There are tons of series you can watch on Netflix or Amazon.
Most of the HBO series are available to watch on Amazon if you have Amazon Prime. You can get a free 30 day Amazon Prime Trial here. I don’t actually watch that much TV so spending an entire day to binge watch whatever the heck I want feels like a treat.
Plus if you’re by yourself no one will be there to judge you for your show choices. I am beyond obsessed with Christmas specials and every year I watch all of the Christmas episodes of popular TV shows.
Craft
If you can’t quite get down with watching TV all day take a craft break. Learn how to knit or put together your own Christmas decorations. Write letters or make cards to send to people in the mail.
This website collects cards for kids in the hospital. My favorite craft activity to do is decorating my planner.
I use a Happy Planner
Make Your Favorite Meal
If you’re into cooking spend the afternoon cooking your fancy dinner or get up in the morning and prepare a full blown brunch. If cooking isn’t your thing try takeout from a non-American restaurant. It’s a great time to get Chinese or Vietnamese food.
Cooking for yourself is also the perfect time to try out new complicated recipes and see if you can get them to work. Plus if you screw it up no one will be there to judge you when you order the Chinese food instead of eating your creation.
Plan what you’re going to eat ahead of time and get excited about your meal.
Make a board of Pinterest for your holiday feast. If you don’t want to cook an entire meal find something really festive to bake and make yourself some special treats.
Declutter
It’s almost time to ring in the New Year and I like to start each year by decluttering the heck out of my house. Get ready to slay the New Year by organizing your closets and cleaning out your junk drawer.
There’s something about getting rid of a shit ton of clothes that makes me feel ready for a fresh start. Make a huge pile of stuff to donate to your favorite charity thrift store. I recently cleaned out all of my old makeup and it felt great.
Christmas is the perfect time to declutter and clean your house so you can walk into the New Year like a fabulous queen. I always do a deep clean of my house before New Years so that I can start the new year off feeling fresh.
Get rid of anything that has unpleasant memories or that you’ve just been hanging onto out of obligation.
Volunteer
If you don’t want to spend Christmas alone signup to volunteer at a homeless shelter or animal shelter. It’ll make you feel great to give back and you can meet other people in your community.
Make sure you reach out to organizations before the holiday so you have a solid plan of where you will be volunteering and what you will be doing.
Find an organization that you think does really important work and spend the holiday helping them out. You won’t have to be alone all day and you will get the satisfaction of helping out an organization in your community.
Start a Project
Dedicate the day to starting or working on a project.
Start a blog, YouTube channel or draft out your first book. Having a huge chunk of time to work on a creative project is a blessing. Whatever your dream is starting working on it.
This blog was actually my New Years resolution two years ago. The holidays are also the perfect time to learn a new skill.
Sign up for an online course and spend the day deep diving into all of the material. Challenge yourself to see how far you can get in just one day and dedicate the entire holiday to your new project.
Adventure
Cruise around and look at Christmas light or check out a new park in your city. Christmas is a great time to walk around and enjoy the stillness of the city. Go somewhere new that you haven’t been before. Hop in your car and drive yourself somewhere new.
I had no idea there were so many parks in my city until I made it my mission to visit every single park. Check out your cities website and see if there is somewhere nearby to go hiking or biking.
Plan the Year Ahead
My favorite thing to do this time of year is to reflect on the past year and start writing goals for the year ahead. You can check out my workbooks to reflect on the past year.
Set some really big goals that excite and scare you and then break down all of the steps you would need to take to make them happen. Once you have all the steps broke down put them into a timeline and make a concrete plan for each month.
Spend some time journaling about why reaching the goal is important to you and how you will feel once you accomplish it. Put together a vision board of what you want your life to look like this time next year.
I love New Years and I always spend a lot of time setting a really clear vision for the upcoming year in December.
Have a Dance Party
Anytime I need to cheer myself up I have a dance party by myself. Having a dance party by yourself is the best because no one is there to judge you and you can dance as hard as you want.
I love all the Fitness Marshall dances on YouTube. Dancing is my favorite way to instantly raise my energy and shift into a positive mood.
If you feel yourself starting to feel sad or lonely as the holiday goes on throw yourself an intense dance party.
The trick is to do it the moment your mood starts to shift. If you wait until you’re really sad it is more difficult to shake off the
Read a Book
Spending the day in bed reading is one of my favorite ways to spend a day. It feels so luxurious to be able to spend an entire day in bed. Get a good book and a cup of tea and get super snuggled.
I love personal development books like The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck
I use and love Scribd for all of my ebooks and audiobooks these days. For $8.99 per month, I get unlimited access to all the audiobooks and ebooks I want.
You can get a free 30-day trial here and check out my post here for all of my favorite self-help books.
Elaborate Manicure
Give yourself a pro level super fancy manicure. I love to be able to paint my nails unrushed and uninterrupted. This is a great activity to do while you’re doing all your Christmas day binge watching.
I usually don’t take the time to paint my nails so whenever I sit down and paint them it feels like a special occasion.
I hope these tips help give you ideas for spending your Christmas day alone. Remember, you’re not alone. There are tons of people that are spending the holidays without their family.
Want to remember these ideas for spending Christmas alone? Pin this to your favorite board!
