How about taking a road trip? You could head to Yosemite or Tahoe and admire the snow, or head over to Monterey our down to Carmel and spend Christmas beach-combing, and either way spend the afternoon by a cozy B&B fire.
Just a thought, if money isn’t a problem: How about an all-inclusive resort (a-la Club Med or something)? Built-in people to talk to and celebrate with, probably warm weather, lots of activities, etc.
J.
Nope. So at least the magic wand is difficult to misplace. 
Nice thought, but money is an object. I have a not-quite-jelled notion of taking SqueegeeJr to Europe for week or so before he’s out of HS, but that’s more in the line of “a once in a lifetime trip with your kid” that I’d dip into savings for because I’d hate to not do it. But week-to-week I have little spare income, so I want to stick to much, much more small bore activities, such as:
Good idea, and I was mulling going hiking or somesuch near the ocean, even as cold as the North Pacific can be this time of year. There’s little hope of snagging a B&B as too many people have time off at the end of the year, and that sort of thing isn’t cheap, even in the off season.
A lot of the suggestions here are if you want to be around people, and that is fine. If you prefer solitude, then that is something else. Some have a lot of family obligations and would love a day-off, alone, in their own home - that is a rare and precious thing, to some.
Personally, if I had that day all to myself, I’d probably lay around reading, make a fattening breakfast and extra coffee, go for a long bike ride or walk (with music or e-book or podcast, etc), watch a movie or three, nap, work on a project around the house, nap, fattening dinner and a bottle of wine, back to sleep. For once, you can make the day all about you.
LOL @ the movie and Chinese dinner out suggestion. I have a single friend and we’ve made that sort of a Christmas tradition for the last few years. Also, Denny’s is open on Christmas day around here.
I do have a couple of married-couple friends who always take pity on me over holidays and invite me to whatever they’re doing. Usually I go. Several years ago I did the solitary Christmas thing: took the dogs for a nice long walk, cooked myself a big-ass steak, exchanged emails and phone calls with more festive people. It was nice.
I actually get a bit annoyed when people get pushy about not letting me spend various holidays alone. I don’t do it often but I am totally OK with it when I do. The expectation that one should have some sort of fairy-tale Christmas surrounded by teeming dozens of other people is a silly construct.
Check around to find which churches in your area have the best music.
Visit a nursing home. Can you play a musical instrument, or sing, or just read poetry or stories? Find someone who has no family and play cards with them. Do a jigsaw puzzle. Or just sit quietly and hold a hand. A nursing home can be a miserable place to be on Christmas. (Husband works on the dementia unit of the state veterans home. He sees it every day.) You might have to make arrangements ahead of time.
This is a great idea. Think of everyone and anyone who has done you a favor, anyone you haven’t been in touch with for a long time for no good reason, and write 'em a note. Handwritten cards are great, but so are typed ones, or emails. Everyone loves a note telling them they are appreciated.
And if you like animals, think about the pet shelter rather than a human one.
Holidays are also great times to get projects out of the way. I get a lot of downtime from work around the holidays every year and I use it to fix, clean, build, remodel, etc. I like improving my personal environment for my enjoyment all year.
Well, let’s be clear. When I had a family, sometimes my wife and kid traveled to her mom’s, and I sometimes didn’t accompany them, and yes: I enjoyed having a quiet house all to myself for those few days.
But now, on alternate weeks, for the last eight months, I have no family.
Yes, I often enjoy having a quiet house to myself. My teenager can sometimes need encouragement to do important things like school work, or help getting to social/sports/whatever things, or I need to spend money and procure things to take care of his needs, etc etc. I do like having my “off duty” weeks because sometimes the “on duty” time can be hectic, especially if my day job is also being hectic at the same time. But that said, I enjoy being a father and having a (very) small family during my “on” weeks.
I do have family in Illinois (I’m in CA); a couple of siblings with grown or almost-grown kids. And my two elderly parents, who won’t be around much longer. Accordingly, I spend my disposable time and income going to see them. Next week I’m taking my fourth trip of the year there, which explains why I don’t make trips to Club Med.
Anyway, I do enjoy a quiet house. All to myself. But I have a bit much of that every other week. People who live in the city vacation in the boondocks; people who live in the sticks enjoy seeing the city. It’s the novelty that’s attractive.
There’s one in town that has live music that’s kind of fun. But I found the service to be a bit evangelical for my tastes. I had the misfortune to attend one time when someone decided to give a 1.5 hour apologetics lecture, to prove that God exists from first principles or something. Thanks guys, I’m already in a church, I already believe in God. Can we maybe talk about moral dilemmas that the bible has guidance on, brotherly love, helping thy neighbor, that sort of thing? Jeez, what a waste of time; I never went back there.
When I was kid, I was fascinated by the huge pipe organ in our church, and loved when they play stuff like Bach on it. The original heavy metal. I’d love to find something like that somewhere around here, but it’s probably all synthesizers doing fake organs these days, sigh. I can do that at home.
Never mind being alone on Christmas. It’s just one day in the year.
What are you doing for social contact the other 363 days? (Thanksgiving being accounted for already.)
This reminds me of those ads you see in newspapers every November begging for donations to provide a Thanksgiving banquet for the homeless and hungry – always showing a picture of a bedraggled homeless person. I always wondered: What good does a once-a-year banquet do for these people? What do they eat all the rest of the year?
Same question for the socially starving. What good, really, does it do to have some mass Christmas or Thanksgiving party to go to, when you really don’t have a friend to be with, not for that day, nor for any day all the rest of the year?
You could entertain yourself by going to a concert or movie or the Exploratorium or the Monterey Bay Aquarium or the Gilroy Garlic Festival. Alone. Again. (It doesn’t really matter what day of the year you do this, does it? Is there something so special about December 25?) Doesn’t that sort of miss the point? Even doing entertaining or recreational things gets old, really old, after doing those things alone year after year. That just isn’t a substitute for having a friend or two to go places with.
I once painted an apartment on Xmas day by myself.
So get a list of stuff you’ve been putting off because you’re busy and tackle it. There won’t be any distractions and no place to go.
I personally set it up as a work day. Clean the house from top to bottom, maintenance I’ve been putting off etc.
Whelp, I do have a couple of actual friends. But they have their own families, so on family days they’re usually not available, and that’s okay. I thought I had more actual friends, but I’ve been schooled recently and realized I was mistaken. I also have activities like a jam group I go to once or twice a month and play guitar with other people who also play or sing (thanks, Meetup!). I don’t have enough of those things, but I’m working on it.
Yup, that’s why I donate to my local food pantry during the year, at somewhat random but non-holiday times. That’s the whole point.
Like I said, I’m working on it. And, really, I’m also coming to the realization that I’ll probably be mostly alone for the rest of my life. I plan to make friends, but it takes time. And since my divorce, I’m really darned disillusioned about romantic relationships and so don’t have any plans to have one. So I’ll need to get better at being okay with all that.
You don’t have to be alone unless you choose to be. You’ve got time enough to set up things to do. Take people up on offers for whatever dates throughout the month, and take booze. Ask other “singles” what they’ve got planned. If they have none, invite them over.
Hit the malls on Christmas Eve. It will immerse you in twinkly lights and desperately happy people making you glad to make it out alive.
I’m not Catholic but one husband and a lover was and Christmas Mass is a trip. Makes you appreciate tradition if nothing else and I recommend it.
You’d be surprised how many places are open on Christmas day. Stop at Walgreen’s for a piece of red velvet greenery to leave your waitperson after brunch or buffet spread. Go to a movie. Stop at a park before you go home. (Somebody else will be there. Stop for a moment. Talk.)
Call your son. You’re one of the most important people he knows on earth. Let him feel safe and okay because you are.
Deck the harrs with barrs of horry,
Fa ra ra ra ra, ra ra ra ra!
Oops. Sorry, wrong thread. I’ll just show myself out. 
I think a cathedral would still have a honking big organ (we still have one and it’s a small town church), and would have the most pomp and circumstance on Christmas, if you’re OK with Catholic or Episcopalian churches. For Catholic churches, you can put your ZIP Code in masstimes.org and follow catherdral/church links to their individual sites.
I’ve gone to a movie on Christmas almost every year for about forty years so far.
As a teenager, I went after dinner about 7 or 8 because we wanted to get out of the house and my parents were happy to get us out of the house. I was amazed at how crowded it was.
Then, as I was older, theaters would open earlier. My husband and I had no family close by so we would go in the afternoon after an early dinner, and I was surprised at how crowded it was.
A couple of years ago we were at our daughter’s, and after the three of us opened gifts and I shoved a turkey in the oven, we went to a 10 AM movie, and it sold out as did most of the other movies in the complex. It was like being at the mall the week before Christmas.
All of this is just a long way to say, you will see a lot more than Jewish people at the movies. If it’s a highly publicized one that opens Christmas Day, get there early.
And join them for Chinese.