Christmas time. It’s noisy, frequently materialistic and irrevocably social.

We plan for it, spend for it, live for it and dread it all at the same time, each year. Our societies Christmas ideal is to sit around a heavily bedazzled tree or heftily set dinner table with every member of our family and friendship circles. But the truth is, many of us don’t meet or fulfill that ideal. Many of us wind up feeling lonely, isolated and disillusioned because of our lack of lack of close friendships or family members. We spend Christmas alone.

For many of us, Christmas becomes not a time of celebration, but of dread and depression. Society tells us that to be alone, or to spend time Christmas alone is pitiful, a tragedy and a sad failure. The truth is, spending time alone is feared because no one knows how to be alone anymore. This is because when we are alone we have to face ourselves, our thoughts, and the irrepressible truth that we are alone, deep down. So we have learned to run from ourselves, and in the process, forget the delights of solitude.

In our society, it is heretical not only to be alone but heretical to find contentment and fulfillment by ourselves, in ourselves as well. As one middle-aged hermit says in Lionel Fisher’s book Celebrating Time Alone, “we’ve been conditioned to press on mindlessly be part of the norm.” And that norm is to stuff our voids as full of stimulation and noise as possible. The fact is that we need to relearn how to be alone. If we ever desire true peace, self-knowledge and happiness – the kind that can only be discovered in solitude – we need to relearn how to be alone. We need to live all the days of our life by making peace with our aloneness. Fortunately, the holiday season is the perfect time to celebrate time alone with yourself. It may be odd and out of the ordinary, but to live up to the standards of a sick, deeply flawed society, is a profound mistake. Below you will find a list of just over 50 quirky, challenging and enjoyable ideas to savor Christmas alone.

Note:

While some of these ideas cater to the playful, childlike and silly sides within us, others cater to our more serious, adult and practical inner dimensions. As a person who has spent a good many Christmas’ alone, I’m sure you’ll find at least one idea that appeals to you below.

51 Things To Do By Yourself

1. Spend the morning in self-deprivation, and spend the evening in self-indulgence.

2. Recreate outer space. Decorate your room with Christmas lights, and turn out all the lights.

3. Take a road trip to a place you’ve never been before.

4. Have a conversation with yourself all day.

5. Compose your own Christmas carol.

6. Practice sensory deprivation and try spending Christmas day without hearing or seeing.

7. Give yourself the gift of silence. Block out all noises and distractions and do what matters to you the most.

8. Search for the loneliest looking person in town and give them a present.

9. Sing karaoke to your favorite songs and dance around until you collapse from exhaustion.

10. Sit outside and appreciate nature while drinking calming and mood-boosting teas like passionflower, kava kava, and damiana.

11. Try to set a world record, and email Guinness World Records when you achieve it.

12. Give your face and body a makeover. Shave, wax, polish, paint, trim and moisturize every part you can find!

13. Take a bag full of old Christmas decorations and stuff someone’s letterbox full of them, to give them a surprise the next day.

14. Practice mindfulness meditation.

15. Become an indoor nudist for the whole day.

16. Think of one guilty interest (e.g. crystal healing for the skeptic) and spend the day exploring your curiosity.

17. Spend Christmas planting a ‘Christmas Garden’.

18. Read an interesting book that will expand your mind such as The Spiritual Awakening Process or Old Souls: The Sages and Mystics of Our World.

19. Do 3 good deeds that will make you happy.

20. Spend Christmas researching new hobbies and interests to broaden your mind, and world.

21. Create a fort or cave out of pillows and bed sheets, and spend the day inside doing what you love best.

21. Make your own Christmas decorations by hand, and cover your house in them.

22. Pretend you are the actor and director of your day. Make it movie worthy.

23. Come up with a list of 20 reasons why you shouldn’t celebrate Christmas.

24. Sit outside and eat your favorite food slowly, savoring every bite in complete mindful awareness.

25. Go to your local park and soak in the sights, smells and sounds of Christmas day. Feel the happy vibes.

26. Cook yourself something you think the Queen would eat, and enjoy it all to yourself.

27. Have a movie marathon.

28. If you have a pet, give it a special present. Treat your companion like royalty.

29. Buy something from the internet for yourself. You’ll have something to look forward to long after Christmas is over.

30. Create a riddle, put it where someone will find it, and hide a prize. Return to the place at the end of the day to see if anyone found it.

31. Open a map of your town, close your eyes, and point to a place on the map. Drive or walk there, and see what you find.

32. Take a walk in the late afternoon to smell all the delicious food emanating from your neighborhood’s houses. Guess what they’re cooking.

33. Go to the beach with your favorite novel, very early or very late, to avoid the commotion.

34. Collect items that represent your feelings and thoughts about Christmas day. Put them in a time capsule box and bury them in your backyard.

35. Spend the morning researching the history of Christmas. Spend the evening creating a YouTube video about what you discovered.

36. Buy or make something special, and put it on your neighbor’s doorstep. Ring the bell and run away.

37. Think about what you loved to do as a kid that you don’t do anymore, and do it, e.g. if it was taking bubble baths, whip out your bath crystals!

38. Make your day more humorous. Watch comedy, laugh at people and yourself, and look for reasons why the things you take seriously are comedic.

39. Sit and observe people on Christmas day and write a short story about them. Then print out and stick it in the letterboxes of every house on your street.

40. Think of every reason why you enjoy being alone for the entire day.

41. Reassess your daily routine, and 20 alternative ways to do what you normally do. Put them in practice.

42. Be actively lazy, and spend the day in bed trying to lucid dream.

43. Spend the day opening, cleansing and balancing the chakras within your body. For example, you could drink soothing herbal teas (such as this chakra bundle) that resonate with each chakra.

44. Santa, Rudolph and the elves aren’t real. But are spirits and ghosts? Spend Christmas trying to contact the spirit world by building your own Ouija board.

45. If you’re religious, go to a church and daydream about your best-loved saints sitting next to you and talking to you. What would they say to you?

46. Use the day to achieve something important. e.g. write a whole blog post, get to level 22 on your game, solve 50 riddles.

47. Spend the day painting your impression of Christmas day and stick it on your front door.

48. Be eccentric. Weird out the people in your neighborhood by hanging bizarre things off a tree outside your house.

49. Nurture yourself for the whole day. Give yourself hugs, write yourself a poem, and compose a list of everything you love about yourself.

Old Souls: Mystics and Sages eBook: Are you solitary, thoughtful, and intuitive? Have you always felt like an outsider on this planet? If so, you may be an Old Soul – and you're not alone. Discover more about your rare gifts!

Are you solitary, thoughtful, and intuitive? Have you always felt like an outsider on this planet? If so, you may be an Old Soul – and you're not alone. Discover more about your rare gifts!

50. Do 5 things that are silly or ridiculous to you, and see if you get any life epiphanies.

51. If it’s snowing, sneak out early in the morning and make a family of Christmas men, positioning them mysteriously all over town.

***

Christmas. It’s imposed on us, and we often feel the need to play by its unspoken rules. But with enough imagination, inspiration, and motivation, we can make the day enjoyable, unique and fulfilling.

Enjoy, and take care of yourself!

What is your story? Are you spending Christmas alone out of choice … or perhaps circumstance? Share below to let others know that they’re in good company.