This is both an exciting and a mellow time of year, with traditional pleasures, & family and friends occasions...photos with Santa, cookie baking, gifts for kids & pets, caroling with friends, school concerts...choosing gifts with love & wrapping them with pleasure...seasonal delights!
It can also be a difficult season for those newly on their own, or far from family...friends busy with their own families or away on a holiday...for whatever reason, one is alone. The commercials and the popular Christmas songs all mirror togetherness...what to do?
Give respect to the holiday...it is about light and feast and spirit. Sharing with others who are alone, or volunteering at community dinners, or going to choral concerts are all good ideas. Driving the neighbourhoods with amazing lights & decorations, will help to lift the spirits. Sharing and inclusiveness are a part of the season, too.
On the Eve, why not pick up something pleasing from the deli counter...an unusual treat to charm the palate? Pick up some movies that are feel-good: how about Stranger Than Fiction with Will Ferrell? Or Babe, or My Favorite Year, or Sense & Sensibility, or Gosford Park, or Bridget Jones Diary or Moonstruck, or... choose your own favourite lighthearted & guaranteed to make you smile titles! Have some champagne, enjoy the fire, light some candles....
It's fine to have a little regret and rue...it's okay, too, to give yourself the gift of calm. It's good to remember those other more busy Christmas years, and it's also fine to set the table, to prepare that individual feast, to bring in the light and the peace of the season, maybe to watch Christmas in Vienna or a tenor's concert, and to allow the season to speak to you.
Every year is different, and change is the only constant in life.
Always good to celebrate the light, no matter if with a group or alone...and to enjoy the gift of peace.
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