With Be Proactive to Beat the Post-Holiday “Blues” (Part 1), I began a discussion of suggestions for keeping the holidays from turning dark afterward. The essay concludes below:
Once you’ve defined the season, enjoy it! Focus on holiday foods, holiday music (see Enduring Christmas Music), holiday books (see An Annual Problem: Finding a Good Christmas Read) and holiday movies.
Immerse yourself in this once-a-year event (see “Closed” for Christmas). This allows you to really appreciate the season while you have the chance.
It also freshens the everyday! After the holiday period, be it a few days or a couple months, the music you normally listen to, the movies you watch, the every day things that you normally do but have neglected during the holidays will seem fresh and new. No matter how much you’ve enjoyed the holidays, you will find new pleasure in the familiar once the holidays pass (see Preparing for Re-Entry).
Part of the Zeiger family nutcracker collection on a snowy winter’s evening (Photo: Mark A. Zeiger).
Try this with the gifts you receive. Surely these include non-seasonal music, books and movies, and possibly non-holiday specific goodies. Set these aside until the season ends. They will hang at the edge of your awareness, promising pleasure to be taken only after the holidays are finished. When the season ends, all of these new things will be there for your enjoyment.
This strategy is especially useful with sweets. The transition from high-calorie holiday foods to less rich everyday fare has a physiological affect on the body that contributes to post-holiday let down. No need to layer non-holiday calories on top of the seasonal fare; defer the calories and their pleasure for after the holidays! For this same reason, if your blues are very bad, consider tapering off sweets and spirits as your season winds down. This will prevent a “crash” that can exacerbate your “blues”.
Finally, make sure you pack up your decorations just before your season ends, not after. On the last day you intend to celebrate, make the chore of “striking” the decorations a part of the celebration. It’s a sad and sentimental task at the best of times! Make it better: play your favorite holiday music while you take down the tree. Have a last plate of holiday goodies and a seasonal drink at hand to help the process along. Leaving this till after the holiday adds one more obligation that you’d rather not think about, one that becomes all the more depressing for being a reminder that the holidays have indeed passed once again.
After the decorations are put away, rearrange your furniture! For many of us, space limitations make this a seasonal necessity with an added benefit. Rearranging your living space has a psychologically stimulating affect. Take advantage of the opportunity, you’ll feel better for it.
If these suggestions don’t work for you, be creative: there must be something for you to anticipate after the holidays, something that makes you look forward, if only slightly, to what comes next.
We cannot properly experience highs without corresponding lows. Human life thrives on ebb and flow. When we reach the heights we must come down, to rise again. The feelings of sadness or disappointment you experience after the holidays are natural; they will come and go. Be prepared for this to happen, accept them if you can, make plans to counter them when necessary, and try to enjoy the ride!