Get Rid of the Holiday Blues With a More Meaningful Holiday Season

The holiday blues are a real thing. Some of us feel lonely, stressed, unappreciated, or overwhelmed during the holidays. How can you get away from this feeling?

To get out of your holiday funk, you’ve got to find a way to remove the cause of your negative feeling. This could mean doing something that adds meaning to your season, simplifying, or spending more time with others. Let’s take a look at ten ways to add more meaning to your season and make this the best holiday time you’ve ever had.

1. Add More Giving to Your Season

One of the best ways to make your holiday more meaningful is to give to a local charity. If you want to take things further than this, you can adopt a family in need and buy things for them that will make a huge difference to a family that you don’t know. If you have kids, you can get them involved in this giving experience and make the holidays extremely special for one family that isn’t as blessed as you and your family.

2. Take Time for Reflection Every Day

What is truly important during the holiday season? If you’re feeling the holiday blues, you can get rid of this feeling by reflecting on the importance of this season. Take your reflections a little further with a journal where you can write down the feelings and thoughts you have about the season and what it means to you. This is a great way to add more meaning to this season and bring the feeling of peace, calm, and joy that you want to experience during this time of year.

3. Cut Out the Overspending Traditions

Just because your parents had a tradition of doing expensive activities during the holidays doesn’t mean you need to do the same. It’s pretty easy to find affordable or free activities in your area that will bring just as much holiday joy to your life, and these new traditions will leave more money in your holiday budget. Too often, we overspend at this time of year and feel nothing but stress because of it. Make a budget, stick to it, and find cheaper or free traditions for your family.

4. Bring Back a Favorite Holiday Tradition

When you’re feeling the holiday blues, an old tradition that your family enjoyed while you were growing up could bring back the feeling of holiday joy you’re looking for. There’s nothing that makes your season more meaningful than using a favorite recipe from someone you love that has passed on. One of the best ways to enjoy these old traditions is to share them with your friends and family and to share with them the memories and meaning you find in these traditions.

5. Lower Your Holiday Expectations

Everything doesn’t have to be perfect; you’ll drive yourself crazy if that’s what you expect. Yes, you can have a beautiful home full of holiday cheer, but it doesn’t have to look like it jumped out of a magazine. Lower your expectations of the season and let the holidays surprise you with much more than you ever thought it could. When you’re not spending weeks on end trying to create the perfect holiday home, you can enjoy your décor and comforts much more.

6. Reconnect With Friends and Family

When you’re feeling the holiday blues, a simple phone call or handwritten note is all it might take for you to get out of the funk. It’s amazing how much a call to your grandparent that hasn’t heard from you in a couple of months can be. This could make their day and yours as you reconnect and talk about memories and wonderful traditions found during this time of year. These calls and notes could mean much more than any item you could buy at the store.

7. Be Present With Your Loved Ones

We live in a time with 24-hour cycles of everything. We’re constantly inundated with content meant to sell us something or start a conversation. Put down the cell phone, turn off the television, and be completely present with your family. Let your loved ones feel important while you engage with them in conversation. It doesn’t matter if that conversation circles; being present is much more important than anything going on in the rest of the world. This is a time you’ll cherish as you get older.

8. Make Your Appreciation of Others Felt

One of the best ways to get out of the holiday blues is to show others how much you appreciate them. This can be as simple as taking a few seconds to truly look someone in the eye and tell them “thank you,” or it can be a note that you give your spouse, child, or parent to tell them how much you love them. Not only will you feel great for showing appreciation, but you might bring someone else out of their holiday funk with your note.

9. Stay Active During the Holidays

Sometimes, the quickest way to make you feel better and add a bit of meaning to your holiday season is to simply get up and get active. The cold weather makes us want to hibernate like bears, but we aren’t bears. Get your family or neighbors together and begin a fitness group together. Those holiday calories count, regardless of how much we want to tell ourselves they don’t. Get up, get outside, and get active.

10. Clearly Communicate Your Desire for Assistance

Many times, others don’t know that you’re feeling the stress of holiday blues by being overwhelmed unless you tell them. Unfortunately, we take on so much at times that this communication comes out as anger at our loved ones. Step back, take a deep breath, and tell your family and friends how they can help you. These are the people that love you and want to be there to help you in any way they can; let them.

Bonus: Manage Your Diet and Alcohol

We often have a tendency to overindulge during the holiday season, which can cause us to feel a bit down and in a funk. If you’ve had too much to drink or eat in the past couple of days, that could be to blame for your negative feeling. Make sure you eat healthy and watch your alcohol intake, especially between holiday parties. This will help you avoid feeling down and in a funk from the wrong kinds of foods. Remember, everything in moderation.

Use some of these tips to get rid of the holiday blues and enjoy a more meaningful holiday season this year.