How Single People REALLY Spend The Holidays: “All I Want For Christmas Is…Solitude.”

Single people, especially those new to a community, experience a unique social challenge as the holidays approach. Holiday conversations die when we enter the room. Hovering in the air is not only mistletoe but also the unspoken question, “Must I invite this person over for holiday dinner?”

When I literally wrote the book on moving (Making the Big Move: How to Transform Relocation Into A Creative Life Transition), I included a chapter on the special needs of the newly-moved single person.

Everyone I interviewed agreed: Skip the invitations. We’ll get our own life.

Most adults, even if they’re single, have calendars.

They know a holiday is coming. Their major issue is not, “How will I get through a holiday alone?” It’s, “What do I tell the friends and relatives who call to see if I’m okay?”

Not everybody enjoys holidays with family –­ their own or anybody else’s.

Some have memories of a mom who refereed the family fights, a cousin who had to sleep it off on the sofa, and a black sheep uncle who timed his phone calls for middle-of-dinner so he wouldn’t have a lot of explaining to do.