I spent Christmas Eve and Christmas alone this week, but for good reason. I think generally when others found out I’d be alone, they were sympathetic and felt bad for me. However, I’ve been alone and lonelier on sadder occasions and this may have prepped me already.
My sister is spending time with her in-laws, while my boyfriend is elsewhere visiting his parents. While I had the option to go travel with both, I decided to stay in San Francisco by myself instead to spend the holidays alone, mostly because I didn’t want to deal with logistics and spend more money on more travel. We had traveled a lot this year, and I wasn’t fully employed yet.
I wanted to enjoy the comforts of my own home and rent, and stay in the city. However, just because I enjoy being alone sometimes, it doesn’t mean I’m immune to the loneliness and sadness that comes with being alone during the holidays.
If you’re spending the holidays alone and you’re bracing yourself for it, here are some things I’d recommend.
Go For a Nice Long Walk, At Least 10K Steps
Going for a walk in the morning or throughout the day helps a lot. It helps you get some fresh air, wake you up, and you can even lose weight. It forces you to go out too, and I just feel like I’m in such a better mood every time I take a walk. I’ve been taking walks every day and breaking them throughout the day to make it more manageable. Kind of random, but if you’re in a place where it’s really cold and you don’t feel like going out, perhaps try a Cursor treadmill. We have one at home after bf wanted us to walk more and stop being so stagnant; it gets the blood flowing and we use it often.
If you’re not into long walks, then try breaking a long walk into a couple short walks around the neighborhood to get some fresh air. It honestly helps your head space.
Create a List of Shows or Movies You Want to Binge Watch
Here are a couple on my list that I had during the holidays:
The White Lotus Season 1
The White Lotus Season 2
Love to Hate You (Korean drama)
Crash Landing on You (Korean drama)
Home Alone 1, 2, and 3
Squid Game Season 2 came out December 26th!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Note: you literally see balls in season 1 episode 1 of The White Lotus. Talk about shooketh. I was not expecting that, but I guess that’s the type of show it is.
Schedule Calls with People During the Holidays
I’ve also scheduled quick calls with friends in advance to say hello while they’re on holiday, as well as checking in with my family. It definitely helps for me to get some facetime with my loved ones, and to have a quick check-in. It helps me feel less lonely and connected with them. That makes you feel more connected and have human time while you’re alone.
Donate and Sift Through Your Clothes to Drop Off at a Donation Center
I love getting rid of old clothes every year! It’s very free-ing.
I usually go through everything to see what I haven’t been wearing and what I can donate. If I have not worn it for a year, then it’s going to the donations pile. Mentally and physically, it feels really good to be offloading these things out of my house and out of my mind. It also helps me remember what items I had, and what were stuck in the back closet so I can wear them. This generally keeps me busy, as I am shuffling and moving things around, as well as contemplating what to get rid of.
There’s a thrift shop near me that takes donations, so I went there to drop off my clothes and I picked up a China plate that’ll end up holding my items. Look at it—it’s gorgeous with the blue waves. I’m in love.
Prepare Your Own Feast in Advance
I ordered a bunch of stuff on Weee! in advance. I knew I wanted to do a hotpot type of thing while watching TV, so I bought a bunch of items in advance to prepare for my solo feasts. This made me have something to look forward to, as I knew I’d be eating some delicious things throughout this week. I’m definitely happy to splurge a bit more on food as I’ll be alone and want to be happy and eating well.
For $20 off your first order, you can use my link here.
Get off Social Media
When I started scrolling through social media, I would feel immense fomo and a bit sad seeing everyone with their families and opening gifts. Do. not. be. on. social. media.
Read books you’ve wanted to read for the longest time, listen to podcasts, go for walks, or even just be a couch potato and watch TV. Once you get sucked into the vortex of social media, you’ll be left with feelings of sadness and it sucks. I recommend staying away, at least until you have other plans ready.
Chinese People Will NEVER Fail Ya
I also went to Chinatown in San Francisco to be around other people who weren’t celebrating the holiday. Heck, even the Lunar New Year decorations were already out. Sidewalks were filled with red envelopes, red calendars, and Snake related decorations. 2025 is year of the snake if anyone didn’t know.
Sure there were other travelers, but Chinatown was just Chinatown.
It was hustling and bustling as always, with all the open markets, and aunties and uncles milling around for the best deals and chatting with and over each other. Also, Chinatown just has its own type of charm, you know?
The type that doesn’t really make you feel alone—it’s really in your face. Uncles spitting in the sidewalks, aunties jostling you to the side to get to the veggies, visitors who wait on the side of the sidewalk in line for dim sum, some random terrible graffiti art on walls and paintings from the APAC summit, and the Christian band belting out carols that Chinese people don’t care for. The tooting of buses and disgruntled bus drivers waving their hands at Waymos stuck in traffic. It’s a sensory overload of people who don’t care about Christmas, who continue are living their lives, and treating this day as any other day. They just are, many hard workers still running their businesses, chopping off fish heads, restocking bokchoy, taking orders of greasy fried dumplings, and taking a quick smoke break.
If you just stand there and take it all in, an auntie may just stop right in front of you, drop 20 raw chickens on the ground and suddenly a hoard of passerby will come over and start negotiating deals while running your foot over with their wheelie carts.
Even better, the famous Golden Gate bakery was open and I only had to wait 10 minutes to get my 5 delicious fresh egg tarts. There were other tourists waiting in line too, specifically a cute Taiwanese family taking photos in front of the store. I know because of their Mandarin accents. If you want a great list of restaurants to try in Chinatown, check out my listicle of recommendations that don’t disappoint. You can always expect Chinese restaurants to be open during the holidays (besides Lunar new year)!!
I also went to a store nearby and got some hot pot packets, canned bamboo shoots, and a matcha genmaicha. Then I happily went home with my goodies.
Last Thoughts
Not everyone can spend the holidays with their loved ones for unforeseen reasons, but if you are, I hope this was helpful and gave you some ideas on how to cope while being alone. Whether it be unemployment, insane ticket prices, your own choice for sanity, or anything, I hope you’re doing alright.
The way I saw it, I didn’t want to hinder my loved ones from being where they wanted to be, and I didn’t want to spend more money on travel. In this weird delayed gratification, I was waiting for something in 2025, such as being able to travel more and not deal with the crazy airports during the holidays. Also, I was enjoying my “rent.”
