Celebrating Solo? Here's a Better Way to Spend the Holidays Alone

Mar. 15, 2025

Photo: Getty

Whether this year is your first or one of many times spending the holidays alone, a little planning goes a long way.

Here’s a list of things to fire up your imagination as you spend the holidays solo:

Have Your OwnGreatBritish Bake Off

Thepopular British baking competitionis thoroughly enjoyable and highly addicting. There’s comedy, drama, suspense and enough variety in the challenges to keep our short attention spans hooked. Even when there seems to bedisaster in the tent, the show never dwells on negativity. Bakers continue to crack on.

Watching the showfrom start to finish is the perfect way to spend your holiday downtime, and if you’ve already done that, try to make a famous bake at home. You can start with the show’s iconic opening credits: chocolate cake with raspberries on top.

Watch TheReal Housewives

Pamper Yourself

Self-care means different things to different people. You can dive intobeauty treatments: face masks, hair masks, nails and baths. You canmeditateand journal. You can nap … for hours. You can draw, paint, sew orread. Diving into a book is the best way to travel to faraway places and wake up different emotions and thoughts that have been dormant in your mind. Curl up in your favorite reading nook and let your brain run free as you devour each page.

There is so much out there to watch these days. While viewing agreat filmor rewatching an old sitcom, the limited series category hits the sweet spot if you want to invest your time in a show. You get your binge fix, and you also get an ending, so you never have to wait for a season 2.

If You Have the Means, Spend Your Money Here

There are so many ways togive back during the holiday season. If you’re able, choose a charity or nonprofit to donate to orshop small businesses. Help spread the word to others. You can start here:

Journal Your Way Into the New Year

It’s time to reimagine and manage what our goals will look like heading into the New Year. The best way to make sense of things is to write your ideas down so you can plan. Since it’s the holidays, add a fun element and try bullet journaling! Get a few tips fromJulianne Doodlesand decorate your pages with her cutecustom stickers.

Break a Sweat with Chloe Ting

The last thing you want to do is work out during the holidays, but hear me out.Chloe Tinghas been my go-to guru for at-home fitness. I love her workouts because she has low-impact and no-weight options, and all her videos are free and go super quickly. Just press play and give it a try.

Spend Time on Your Side Hustle

Feeling stuck in your career? Not feeling a 9-to-5 lifestyle? Now is the time to feed your passion and take a chance pursuing a different career. Maybe you like your day job, but you want to make your side hustle more profitable. Create a business plan, take an educational online class, put out original content and feed that side of you that you’ve been neglecting for far too long.

Redo Your Living Space

Use this time to rearrange your place so it works for you. As you trim the tree or light the menorah, move your couch closer to the window to get more natural sunlight. Put up wallpaper to jazz up a bland corner, or do a pantry clean-out. Put yourHome Editknowledge to the test and revamp your home.

Write Letters to Your Friends

After knocking out each activity on this list, you might be having the bestholidayever. But for family and friends who may be struggling with being alone, try sending a letter. While a text, phone call or FaceTime are all suitable options, too, there’s nothing like a handwritten card to let a person know they’re missed and loved.

Happy holidays!

source: people.com