If you'll be alone for the holidays, how will you make the time feel special?

Barring illness, I am hoping to be with my daughter, but nobody else. On Thanksgiving we’ll do the usual, watch the parade, watch the dog show, eat yummy stuff, and gorge on too many pies.
Christmas will be pretty much the same, special foods, opening gifts, goofing around, there will be phone calls.

We both are pretty philosophical about this, we are just happy to be still well, and wish the same for the others who would have joined us.

If one or the other of us can’t make it, we’ll cope. It’s temporary. It’s just a reeeaaaaally loooong temporary.

Wife and I will have a BBQ roasted Duck (she loves Duck) ! Mashed Yukon Gold potatoes mixed in with boiled turnips, mixed veggies and pumpkin pie for dessert.

Not sure if we’re visiting friends or staying home, but either way would be fine.

I heard on the news this morning that this year (2020), 1 out of 4 people will be cooking Thanksgiving dinner for the first time ever.

If I stay home, it would be with my teen daughter. She would be very happy to stay home. I would make something for dinner. It doesn’t necessarily have to be turkey. It could be chicken or lasagna. I would get some cool dessert.

I would probably end up watching Netflix and chill, and doing phone calls with my family and friends.

Having one year of low key holidays is ok with me.

What about you, @longgone, how will you be making things special for yourselves?

Just my husband and I, and for Thanksgiving it will be like any other day. I guess there will be football on TV, so my husband will watch that.

For Chanukah I’m planning on performing/dancing at the Chanukah celebration here. I’ll also make potato latkes one night.

For Christmas I’ll prepare one of the dish’s his mom make’s for Christmas and it will otherwise be a typical day. Unless, suddenly my husband decides he wants to see his parents for Christmas. If he does I’m going to try to encourage going another time. I think it will be more risky to travel during the holidays.

I don’t care if I don’t do much for the holidays. I don’t feel like seeing people on Christmas is different than seeing them on another random day. The pressure to be with people on a certain day or people will be disappointed is more stressful than happy to me.

I just read a suggestion that you make a hearty sandwich for yourself and send the money you would have spent on a turkey dinner to a local foodbank. I will be dining with a few neighbors whom I’ve also invited for afternoon tea on Christmas but I have been totally alone in the past. For Christmas a few years, I ordered a box of goodies like a new flannel night gown and some candy treats from a store and not opened it until Christmas morning. Then I had breakfast in front of the fire in my new PJs. I try to create little rituals and cozy ideas for myself when I’m going to be on my own.

@canidmajor Actually, I’m secretly looking for ideas here. Lasagna, treats I order for myself, dogs, special desserts, phone calls? Yes.

I have about five days off with only minor plans, but any day I’m breathing I’ll choose gratitude and make the best of it.

We will probably watch movies, eat well and play Crash 4. Anytime I can sneak a nap in, I will, too. Maybe a walk in the fall leaves or yardwork if it’s nice out.

And then there’s the wonderful Icelandic tradition of exchanging books on Christmas Eve and spending the night reading and eating chocolate:

https://www.sbs.com.au/food/article/2018/12/19/icelands-book-and-chocolate-tradition-perfect-way-spend-christmas-eve

It’ll be me and my cat, and honestly, I’ll hate every minute of it.

Make a pumpkin pie and eat the whole thing by myself.

@Kropotkin: Yeah but how does the cat feel about it?

Upgrading my PC.
Already ordered a 128GB RAM kit.
Hopefully I can can get my hands on one of the new AMD gpus later this month.

@cookieman She’ll love it.

@Kropotkin: Then all will be well.