I don’t know about y’all but the holidays present us with so many amazing opportunities to celebrate, spread, share and feel love! For the two of us, the holidays consist of quality time spent with our extended families, which always serves as a great reminder of all the love we have surrounding us and supporting us throughout each year. For one of us, Maddie here, family gatherings end up being a huge party because I happen to be from a massive family (around forty first cousins) so the holidays are an extra big celebration and an extra big reminder of all the love I have to be grateful for!
While I will always appreciate coming from such a large family- I will admit that the holiday season can, at times, leave me feeling a bit insecure about my relationship status (or lack thereof). As y’all know we enjoy being single and dating around but when it comes to certain times of the year, particularly the holiday season, we can’t help but pause and think twice about our relationship status as we meet another relative’s new significant other and realize that yet another holiday party has come where we arrive without a special someone to introduce and celebrate the holiday with. But I will stop there because this post is not meant to be a downer- it is meant to spread awareness to the benefits of being single so that we can remind ourselves of all that we have to grateful for as we fly solo this holiday season!
From the small benefits, such as a shorter shopping list, to the large more impactful benefits such as self-growth, these are the benefits that we appreciate most about our single status which serves as seven extra reasons to be grateful this holiday season!
Seven Benefits To Being Single During The Holidays:
- You get to spend extra time with your family/ friends this holiday season! For fun ideas to spend quality time with your family/ loved ones check out five ideas for a family self-care night in here.
- You don’t have to split the holidays with your family and your significant others – again giving you extra time with your own!
- One less person on that long shopping list which means you can spend that time or money elsewhere- either showering a loved one with an extra gift, giving yourself more self-care related gifts (hello spa day) or volunteering/ giving back to a cause you are passionate about. Check out our holiday self-care tips for more ideas on how to show yourself some extra love this season!
- Reminding yourself of the self-growth that you have likely endured over the last months/ years of being single. It has been in our personal experience, that the most amount of self-growth and major pivotal moments we have had, have been during our most single days- totally alone, unattached. Despite some of the loneliest lows we have experienced while being single- realizing that we can cope on our own and take care of ourselves without needing a relationship has given us much confidence and independence to appreciate our time on our own.
- Reminding yourself that the best is yet to come, as cliché as it may seem, there is adventure that awaits you even if you are feeling like you have been single for a very long time. There will be future partners, new flings to be had and all that single fun, and fun future dates- all of which brings so much excitement in the mystery of not knowing how things will unravel when you are not settled down yet!
- That it is better to be single than to be in an unfulfilling relationship. Starting to miss that someone from the past because you feel lonely?! We’ve all been there but remind yourself that things turned out the way that they did for a reason and while you may want to overlook those reasons when you feel vulnerable, especially at the holidays, – remind yourself that you are exactly where you are meant to be and that taking care of you and being on your own will help you in the long term over staying in an unfulfilling relationship!
- Remind yourself that you are not alone. Even if you are like me where you have what feels like the largest family that keeps on getting bigger at each holiday party and you continue to be the single relative- remind yourself that statistically this is not even possible- there are plenty of single individuals this holiday and you are reading from one right now- so cheers to my fellow singles, remind yourself that you are not alone and that it is time to remind yourself of all the great aspects to your life- this list including and to have fun this holiday season – spoil yourself extra, buy that gift you would put first on your list if you were still writing lists to Santa and smile at what is left to come this holiday season and beyond 🙂