by Gordon Hamilton

Created on: December 11, 2009

How to survive Christmas without that special someone is a consideration which can come about for one of two principal reasons. It can be due to that special someone being elsewhere at Christmas through circumstances beyond their control, or it can be due to that special someone either having passed away or a relationship having come to an end. The delicacies of how to survive Christmas without that special someone will vary, therefore, depending upon which of these circumstances apply.

If you find yourself having to determine how to survive Christmas without that special someone who is perhaps working away from home, or serving overseas with the military, the way to approach it is to determine precisely how you can share something special at Christmas without actually being in one another’s physical company. It may be that a phone call is possible, or a chat via webcam. Perhaps you and that special someone can arrange to open your exchanged gifts at a synchronised time on Christmas Day and be thinking of one another as you do so. The importance is in knowing that although you are physically apart, spiritually you are together at this special time, and that hopefully you will be reunited as soon as is at all possible.

If, on the other hand, you find yourself having to spend Christmas without that special someone who has sadly either passed away or is no longer a part of your life for some other reason, the process is infinitely more difficult. The priority here is ensuring that, even if you may not enjoy Christmas Day a fraction as much as you have previous Christmases, you are at least kept busy on the day itself and your attention is taken up as much as possible. The danger of sitting alone, with no one to talk to and nothing to do is that your depression will only grow and the day will be even more miserable than it may otherwise need have been.

There are two different ways in which you can approach how to survive Christmas without that special someone in these circumstances. You can perhaps explore the possibility of working on Christmas Day. This is not possible for everyone in their normal vocation but there are always charities looking for valuable assistance at this time of year and helping others who are in a position even less fortunate than you could very possibly help you to count your blessings and distract you to some extent from your grief.

Alternatively, you can decide to make the most of Christmas, either alone or preferably with friends and family. Throwing yourself in to the celebrations, eating, drinking (but not too much!) and trying to make merry is possible - although likely to be difficult - and perhaps the act of doing so can help to lay your longer term ghosts to rest.

Whatever the reason you find yourself having to survive Christmas without that special someone, it is vital that you do so and know that whatever the circumstances may be and however difficult the period may be, life simply has to go on and each and every Christmas is a very big part of life.

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