Surviving Christmas alone: how your faith can help you through it

Many articles have been written about surviving Christmas alone. Most of these articles deal with finding a way to break free from being alone. Service in homeless shelter, finding a family or group of friends to join for the holidays, or throwing your own party are common suggestions. Yet, there are times when you are truly alone, and survival tactics for this wilderness of true loneliness are necessary for your emotional and mental health. You may find yourself far from home, having few to no friends, or in the midst of a tragedy such as a death of a loved one or a divorce.

The following six ideas might be just enough to help you survive being alone on Christmas. These ideas are designed for people of faith.  Faith has a power to help navigate loneliness, and even if you have only a little faith, it should be enough to get you through.

1. Change your perspective on the season. Remind yourself that Christmas is not about the consumeristic pressures our society forces upon us. It began as reminder of God's identification with humanity in the most personal and dramatic sense possible - the birth of God's Son as one of us - with all our frailties. Let your faith reach beyond the temporal realm of things to find solace in the unmeasurable love of God.

2. Develop a personal and private liturgy of appreciation for the Christmas story. Through songs, readings, meditation, or prayers make a place in the day for interacting with God. The lighting of candles, out loud recitation of prayers and readings you love, playing songs which help you focus, or the setting of an altar with ritual reminders of your faith in Christ may be helpful to navigate you through a personal time of devotion.

3. Find your inner artist: poetry, painting, writing, music, sewing, knitting, drawing, photography, carving, dancing or whatever artistic endeavor you love most - find a way to express it. Connect it to your liturgy. Let it be a part of your communication with God, and an expression of your identification with the season as it should be celebrated.

4. Pamper yourself with something you really like to do. Consider the pampering to be an expression of God's love toward you. It is God who has given all good things to us, and every time we find a little joy in a healthy expression it is God's caress of love upon us. Get lost in a hot bath, sit by a fire, curl up with a good book, prepare a favorite food, have a glass of wine or ale, smoke a cigar, listen a favorite CD or watch a favorite movie.

5. Discover the wisdom of sorrow. It is okay to feel sad. There is a God in heaven who's story mirrors the sorrows of humanity, and the rejection we all feel at times. Your struggles give you wisdom to help someone else through their hard times. This should not cause you to wallow in pity, but to recognize that you will gain strength in your seasons of sadness.

6. Talk only to those whom you know will encourage your heart. It is alright to avoid talking to people who are discouraging to you when you are at your most vulnerable point. If you have caller ID use it. If you need to tell someone that you can not talk right now, do it politely but firmly. Yet, there are people who encourage you simply when you hear their voices. If you can make contact with them, do it. These people are God's audible and tangible expressions of care to you.

Jackson Browne, The Rebel Jesus - a song for those who wish to escape the consumeristic tendencies of the Christmas season