Celebrate it, mourn it, or some combo of both, 2024 is about to swirl off into the sparkly dust in our rearview mirrors. Speaking for myself, if the year we’ve just lived through were displayed as a line graph, it would look like the Himalayas.
That’s because the Himalayas has not only the highest peaks but also the lowest river gorges of any mountain range on Earth. That’s been my 2024: thrilling, rarefied heights and bottomed-out lows.
I doubt I’m alone in feeling that way about what’s about to become the Old Year. Nor do I believe I’m the only one looking toward the New Year with a bit of a squint. But that’s still in the future.
For the present (pun intended), here are the Holidays. You may cherish them or wish they would just get themselves over with, but it’s a sure bet that this caesura in the rhythm of normal life brings up a lot of competing feels. Nostalgia and hope. Exhaustion and exhilaration. Tension and (with luck) relaxation.
If you’re one of those whose job it is to produce Christmas or one of its adjacent festivities — which means most parents, especially moms — hopefully by now the decorations are all in place, the cards mailed, the gifts bought and wrapped, the cookies exchanged, the Elf shelved, the turkey trussed.
And now there ensues a weird amalgam of bedlam and peace.
Or, if the kids are all grown up and living far afield, the bedlam part is absent, and you kind of miss it.
It’s well known that for some of us, the holidays exacerbate every personal or familial pain point, all of them brought into tortuous contrast with the omnipresent exhortations to be merry and of good cheer.
Now more than any other point in the yearly cycle, it’s important to tend to one’s mental well-being. That means enough rest — a concept to which Americans love to pay lip service but are lousy at practicing — but it also means filling at least some of your time with mood-boosting activity, lest these waning days of the year start to weigh too heavily on your spirits.
Therefore, I offer tried-and-true recommendations for these emotionally heightened days. Yes, it’s another holiday listicle, but this one, I promise, is good for you.
1. Take a DIY holiday lights tour in your neighborhood
Sure, there are the commercially packaged tours, some offered in horse-drawn carriages or olde-timey trolleys, of fancy-pants enclaves where the residents hire professionals to deck their halls in electronic splendor.
Those are okay, but assuming you’re not in the jillionaire class, I think it’s more fun to tool around in your own haunts after dark. That way you get to see what your homeys have been up to on their ladders, and how much better the deflated inflatables look when their air compressors are in play.
Somebody in our ‘hood is evidently so enamored of the life-size skeletons they displayed at Halloween that Mr. and Ms. Bones are still there, only now wrapped in lights and wearing red and green tee shirts set off with rakish elf hats.
Maybe not in the best of taste, but props for recycling.
2. Eat a high-carb diet
Also high-fat, high-sugar, and high-joy. If not now, when? Don’t risk the isolation of being out of step with everyone who’s waddling off to the gym in January. Admit it, you’ve been pounding down the goodies since late November. The last thing you want to do is shock your system by going cold turkey.
Unless that turkey is in a sandwich with plenty of mayo, leftover stuffing, and cranberry sauce, with a rum ball chaser. Then go for it.
3. Give something to someone you don’t know
If it worked for Ebenezer Scrooge and the kid he hired to go buy the Christmas goose for Tiny Tim’s family, it’ll work for you.
Honestly, however down in the dumps the holiday blues have taken you, giving without expectation of receiving in return is a no-fail emo elevator that only goes up. Especially when you give something to somebody who is needier than you.
And there is always someone needier than you. Enjoy the privilege of being able to help.
4. Watch old holiday movies — and I mean OLD ones
Sure, “Elf” is a hoot, and maybe you got a tickle out of “Bad Santa” (I didn’t). But for sure-fire hankie-honking holiday vibes, you need to dig up the B&W classics. It’s A Wonderful Life. A Miracle on 34th Street (the 1947 version). And my under-appreciated fave with Cary Grant, David Niven and the celestial Loretta Young doing star turns in The Bishop’s Wife (also released in 1947, which was clearly a banger year for Christmas movies).
Pair with eggnog.
5. Move
Carbs, cheese balls, and eggnog aside, this is no time to back off on physical activity. You need to move, lest you become the unfortunate version of a figgy pudding, both physically and emotionally.
Bundle up and take a walk. Or dance alone in your socks; whatever you can do without landing in the hospital.
Just do something that gets your heart pumping, your muscles twitching and your joints lubed. Just sayin’, depression and online Zumba don’t easily coexist. Choose Zumba; silliness is good for you.
6. Call up an old friend you haven’t talked to in forever
Maybe somebody who hasn’t been on your holiday card list, should you still be sending holiday cards. This step takes some courage, which is why it’s so effective. You are taking a risk: your old compadre could be distant, aloof, no longer at that number, or ultimately unreachable (AKA, dead).
But if none of those things happen, you’re in for, at worst, some awkward small talk and at best, a delightful and past-erasing reconnection. What have you got to lose?
7. Pretend you’re a tourist from another planet
Trust me, this works. If the holidays are hitting you at a time of personal crisis or loss, all the fa-la-la is going to feel disjointed and foreign. Instead of letting that add to your sorrow, go with it. Pretend you’re an undercover researcher from Planet Elsewhere, on assignment to observe the activities of Earthlings at this time of their solar cycle.
Think of all you’ll have to report on. Humans dragging dead trees into their living rooms, festooning them with bright objects, and then sitting in front of them while eating candy out of their socks!
Who can explain such behavior?
8. Hand out compliments like they’re candy canes
This is another technique that, when you’re feeling a bit bah-humbug, takes some venturing out of your familiar discomfort zone. I promise you, though, the ROI is huge.
For maximum returns, express your appreciation to strangers. You’ll be amazed at how even the most tight-faced passerby will open up when you tell them how much you admire their sweater, or how they do their job, or how great their hair (or shaved head) looks.
Just don’t be smarmy about it. If necessary, confine your remarks to people of your same gender and age demographic: that’s usually safe.
Seriously, find whatever theater is screening this utterly original, transcendent animated feature film, and go see it. Now.
I don’t care if you’re not into foreign films (this one is produced partly in Latvia). It doesn’t matter. There’s no dialogue, at least not human dialogue. And you can take the kids. It’s the kind of story that will mean something to everyone at whatever stage of life they’re passing through.
Flow is about a cat who has to survive a flood by teaming up with other species — and that’s like saying Moby Dick is about guys hunting a whale.
Trust me on this: Flow is one of those films that make you feel good about being a member of a species that can produce such art.
10. Take time off
By that I mean, set time apart from whatever your normal obligations are. Do less of one thing, more of another; do the things you usually never get to but wish you could.
Even better, don’t worry about doing at all. Just be. Now is a time to stop, catch your breath, and allow yourself to reside in the center of All The Things.
This holiday season, this moment, this year will pass in the blink of an eye. Not to be a grinch, but there is no guarantee you’ll get another one. So merry or not, make the most of it.
And here’s wishing you the best that 2025 has to offer — whatever that turns out to be.
