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Eat, Drink, Be Merry (or not, if you don’t feel like it)
I’m grateful to all who shared their wisdom for FIRST PERSON SINGULAR’s contest, Surviving the Holidays When You’re Single. Thank you for being a part of my family, and making it feel large and bountiful!
Most of your advice centered on preparing and eating delicious food, enjoying a stiff drink, and taking pleasure in a day where we have the latitude to do what we want, whether it’s being with loved ones, taking in some culture, or delighting in our own company. We have two WINNERS. Both will be receiving a copy of The Pleasures of Cooking for One by Judith Jones
Drumroll, please….
JULES: for being so comprehensive, and covering it all; culture, food, drink, exercise
For me surviving the holidays is a multi faceted approach. First, stimulate your brain, more than usual. This includes museum and/or gallery outings, theatre, live music, having several excellent books on hand (these are my true solace), movies both at the theatre and rented, and spending time with people you don’t see regularly. Secondly, I find some type of cooking project I don’t partake in ordinarily during the rest of the year. This usually involves some sort of canning which is great for stocking the pantry and for gifting. I particularly enjoy listening to great music or watching a good sporting event on TV while doing this. Eugenia Bone has several helpful books on preserving if you need help or inspiration. Thirdly, if you have more spare time exercise more. It’s true this really helps everything. Better yet, try some form of exercise you haven’t done before. Finally, seek out good company, both with others and yourself. Also, I concur with William and Matty, a cocktail, especially carefully crafted, enhances all the above mentioned. I do most of the above year round but in a less focused condensed manner. The holidays demand extraordinary measures.
Happy Holidays Everyone!
ALTOON: because I will be enjoying Christmas night on the couch watching a movie with my pets. (Billy Wilder’s fabulous film, The Apartment)
I feel very happy spending time with myself, especially on New Year’s Eve. I cook something special for dinner, which usually means with meat (I mostly eat vegetarian), have a lovely glass of wine, and plunk myself down in front of the tv, dinner on my lap, cats too interested in my food, to watch a marvelous movie, a very long one, preferably a classic. Heaven!
this also works for xmas, saturday nights, birthdays, etc.
(And an honorable mention to Kimberly for giving a shout out to Isaac Newton)
Photo: Dancers’ legs at Radio City Music Hall, 1959. Dennis Stock / Magnum Photos
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This was the first Christmas of my entire 41-year-old life that I woke up in a home with no other people. My sister and I had always spent Christmas Eve night at my mother’s so we could wake up together, but my mother passed away last year and my sister is recently married and pregnant and, worse, her in-laws were coming. It hit me that I didn’t have a family of my own and I was going to have to be the tag-along with my sister’s this year.
I emotionally prepared for this weeks prior to Christmas by getting depressed and sharing my heartache with other (mostly single) friends. Some have never been married, some are divorced and a couple are recent widowers. Not all of them were willing to comfort me, but I discovered that a lot of people I knew were facing similar Christmases. Some of them had had to make these kinds of adjustments years before, when they were still in their tender youths.
I went out and bought nicotine patches. I used to smoke and the nicotine kicked right in like an old friend. I told my therapist, I’m not taking these off until after the holidays.
Finally, I made the crossing. I accepted the changes that were happening in my family. What a relief! I woke this morning alone in my apartment with my dog. (The dog helped greatly, as he has since I got him.) I drank coffee alone and enjoyed a leisurely morning. Then I loaded all the gifts in the car and the two apples pies I’d made and the dog. It was one of my best Christmases ever. I had made complete peace with my aloneness and I felt like a rock star.