Hi all
This Christmas /New Year will be the first I think Ive EVER spent alone. Not that I’ll be alone the whole time of course, but I wont be sharing it/them with any significant partner, SO…if you are ALSO spending Christmas without a partner - Id be interested to hear - what do you plan to do? (or not do!)
I plan to go to the pub with old schoolfriends and drink a bit too much. I plan to spend Christmas Day with family, as per usual. I plan to go to the football on Boxing Day with other friends, and perhaps drink a bit too much again. New Year is also with old friends, with perhaps a little bit of alcohol involved. At some point while drunk, I will get maudling about being single, and about never taking opportunities when they come along. Oh, and complaining about the lack of single women, when there’s clearly thousands of them all around (that’s a speciality of mine).
I plan to not start feeling sorry for myself just yet. Let’s see how that goes!
I’m doing absolutely nothing constructive if I can help it. Just curling up on the sofa, reading (trashy novels), drinking wine, relaxing and feeling happy that I don’t need to be anywhere. But then again, I’ve spent many Christmases this way, so it’s nothing new. Still very pleasant, though.
I probably won’t start feeling sorry for myself until New Years…
I have never had a partner over Christmas, so this is no big change. I plan to spend Christmas weekend with my friends and their kids. Next week I will be working. On New Years’ weekend, I’m not sure what I will be doing. In early January I will go visit my father.
Yeah, nothing new to being single on a holiday, major or otherwise.
12/24 – annual party with old friends, always a lot of fun.
12/25 – not a thing. Probably hang out at home and watch movies or read.
12/26 – my usual Sunday coffee date with a pal has been moved to Monday for the holiday.
12/30 – I’m taking the day off; nothing during the day, then in the evening a friend is taking me to see Stomp, in celebration of my birthday.
12/31 – New Year’s Eve and my birthday – lunch and a movie (probably The Producers with my best friend. My sister and her husband are thinking of having a party, which I’ll go to if they do; otherwise probably I’ll have dinner with them and then come home well before midnight.
1/1 – hang out at home and watch the Mummers parade on TV while puttering, reading, doing needlepoint, etc.
1/2 – a friend’s birthday – I think that’s the night he and I are going out to dinner, but it depends on how his on-call schedule at work goes.
I’ll go see some friend XMas eve. I’ll go see Mom on XMas day.
I’m working Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, and New Year’s Eve. I volunteered, because I need the money. No hunk of burnin’ love to spend my off time with, either. I do miss having a boyfriend during the holidays; the rest of the year, it comes and goes.
Happy holidays to me. :rolleyes:
Me and the cats are thinking of breaking tradition and going with Martini’s instead of Irish Whiskey.
This is the time I miss least with my ex-SO (any of 'em, really). Allus making me go to parties to where I dont know anyone, and reminding me to be polite to drunken idiots.
Gonna have the best fun this year, whether it’s catching up on my reading, or enjoying a visit from my youngest daughter, who’s going on 16 and may not want to spend too many more holiday seasons with her grumpy old dad.
Except for last year, I’ve not been with an SO for the holidays for ten years So I’m used to being alone.
Christmas I’ll make roast prime rib and Yorkshire pudding, boiled red potatoes, and Brussels sprouts. I may or may not make a cheesecake. I’ll have a Cabernet Sauvignon with dinner. My friend/business partner recently broke up with his g/f, so I’ve invited him over. (I’m cooking, whether or not he comes over.) We’ll probably eat, drink, and watch non-Christmas DVDs.
Well, you could split the difference and make Irish Whiskey Manhattans (also known in some quarters as a Dubliner). It would be a shame to do that to good Irish Whiskey, though…
Me, I’m figuring I might drive up the coast with a camera, the venerable Cat’s Meow, and a bottle or two of the afformentioned beverage for evening post-prandial consumption (probably Black Bush, but I might splurge on Jameson 1780 or maybe even some Middleton Very Rare if I can find it…otherwise, some Glenmorangie Port Wood or Laphroaig) and see how far Hwy 1 goes and what it looks like when it gets there.
If I spot Brazil (the mythical Gaelic island, not the former Portuguese colony) then don’t expect me back. Otherwise…I guess I’ll drive back south and take the 210 home. In Southern California, all roads lead to Pasadena.
Stranger
I’ve never had a significant other for Christmas, so this is nothing new to me.
12/23–Annual birthday/Christmas party at my house with friends.
12/24-25–My college roommate is coming to visit, and together we will celebrate 48 Hours of 30th Birthday and drink ourselves into insensibility. Come to think of it, we may have done the same thing at 48 Hours of 20th Birthday.
12/26–Recover.
I have no plans further than that. I don’t even know if I’m going out for New Years’ yet.
I am single this Christmas. It really makes the Holidays a lot less jolly.
I will drive to my parents house on the 25th and come that same day. They drive me bonkers and I intend to keep the visit short as usual. My bro and sis are married and have babies and they are going to their in-laws.
So that leaves me and my younger sis to endure the lengthy speeches about how we should set on a plan to find Mr Right.
Apparently my Mom deems us to be dismal failures at life unless we are thin, pretty and married.
She will also make comments about how much food we eat (“a moment on the lips…forever on the hips”) so you cannot even enjoy the dinner.
New Years is gonna be me, TV and books. Nothing makes me feel like a bigger loser than paying the $20 ($25 for couples-What…Oh you are ALONE) cover charges to watch everyone make out at midnight.
Nothing like the merry ol’ holidays to remind you that you are alone. 
I’ve been single for way more holidays than not, so it’s not a big deal. Figuring out how to fit in someone else’s family and traditions causes more chaos than dealing with being uncoupled, actually.
12-24 My entire family comes over for an eating and gift-exchanging extravangza.
12-25 Morning at home, then dinner and more giftage with my family of friends.
12-26 or 27 or sometime before NYE I’ll get together for a quieter meal and exchange with another friend’s family.
12-31 NYE party with the same family of friends from 12-25, and all our assorted acquaintances.
Just last year one of my best girlfriends had this huge realization that being single means I have no gifts to open on Christmas morning. I have a 13 yo son, when he was little there was always some handmade thing from school, not that he could ever wait for the 25th to proudly present it. Now that he’s older but not old enough to have like, a job or the ability to shop without me, said girlfriend finds a way to take him shopping for some small token for Mom. As if it’s somehow less pitiable to have a $5 bath lotion set to open Christmas morning.
I, of course, gratefully accept said token in the spirit in which it’s offered, but truly, in my household Christmas morning has been all about Mommy and Santa’s gifts to the boy for so long it’s a non-issue. Since this is your first one, it might feel weirdly anti-climatic to not wake up wondering what you’ll find or whatever, but for us terminally single folks, not so much.
I’m single, my best friend goes out of town every Christmas and New Year’s, and my next closest friend lives in Pittsburgh. So I’m pretty much alone for the holidays, as I am most years, but it never really bothers me. Sure, there will be brief moments of loneliness here and there, but they never last long … I’ve never been one to wallow or get depressed about being alone for the holidays, and I don’t think that not having an SO makes the season any less festive.
On Christmas Day I’ll drive to my mom’s and have a 2pm dinner with her and my brother. Then around 6pm I’ll go to my dad’s (he lives about 20 minutes from her), with my brother if his work schedule allows. Later that night I’ll drive back home, likely to sit on the couch watching a new DVD or two while eating peanut M&M’s. 
I plan to take Monday off, and will play this Friday by ear: if it’s dead quiet, with no prospect for a poker game, I’ll go home early.
New Year’s weekend I got nuthin’. I’ve had a date for New Year’s Eve a few times in the past, but it’s never been a big deal to me. I’ll feel a quick moment of self-pity as the ball drops and there’s no one to kiss, but then I’ll get over it and be happy that it’s 2006.
Make the cheesecake and I’ll be there Sunday morning.
I’ll probably make it. Only it’s no-bake cheesecake out of a box. If I had an SO, I’d probably make one from scratch. With just me, and probably a friend, no-bake is good enough for a couple of bachelours.
Since New Year’s has been mentioned, I may go to a FOAF’s party. I’ve heard they have awesome parties. New Year’s Day I’ll make ham hocks and black-eyed peas, and ham hocks and collard greens (both from scratch), and some Pillsbury cornbread. If I’m ambitious I might get a ham steak or something to go with it. Or maybe fried chicken instead of ham. But I likes me some beans and greens.
My mom’s side of the family already had our Christmas party, so I’m going to see my dad’s side of the family on Christmas Eve.
Christmas Day I’ll be hanging out alone, so I’ll probably save some Netflix DVDs to watch then.
New Year’s Eve (which, up until last year, was also my wedding anniversary) may be spent at my sister’s house. She, her husband, my brother, his girlfriend, and I plan to have a game night sometime next week and that might be the night.
Going to be awkward when it comes time to pick teams for Pictionary. 
23rd – attend morning services, then sleep and/or read.
24th – attend morning services, then sleep and/or read. In the evening, celebrate with immediate family. Around 10:30 pm, the Christmas services proper begin. Afterwards, food, then sleep.
25th – spend most of the day with extended family celebrations.
26th – (surprise!) attend morning services, then do nothing. Possibly sleep and/or read. I have quite a few books I’ve started and need to finish.
At some point in there, I’ll be attending a friend’s pre-wedding planning dinner and drinkfest, in hopes of hashing out details of the service, in which I am going to be playing a major assisting role, albeit without having to wear a kilt, for which I am thankful.
Being a confirmed bachelor, I’m quite used to spending Christmas alone (well, alone in the sense of not having a partner to spend it with). I’ve never known anything different. For you people who miss having a partner at this time of year, how is having one or not having one different from any other time of the year? Is there something about this season, specifically, that makes you miss having a partner more?
Can I come over? I’ll bring the Apple Pucker …
Oh. Um, well, my mom would probably really miss me, so maybe I should just go to Maryland after all…
Do you know how to make Italian cheesecake? I will seriously consider marrying a man who can make a good Italian cheesecake…