For those of us spending Xmas alone: How are you doing?

Hey gang,

So I suspect there's many of us this year who are spending Christmas day without our families

But that doesn't mean we have to be "alone". What are you getting up to today? Do you have any plans?

Yesterday I watched my favourite Jackie Chan film with a friend, then I watched Jingle all the Way, didn't start wrapping my presents till 2am, and then went to bed at 4am

Today, my mum woke me up and said "You can come round in 10 min for an hour to do breakfast and presents", which was cool. Barely seen my family this year, despite the fact that they live 5 doors down from me. Went round to see them, we socially distanced, did our presents, and then I came home. Now I'm watching 90's/00's Japanese pro wrestling in my dressing gown while eating celeberations, and waiting for my Xmas dinner plate to be dropped off. My grandmas sending it round later tonight.

How about the rest of you? Are you doing ok?

I'm good, but I'm the sort of person that gets "sick" every three or four years so I can avoid family anyway. Five NBA games on the docket today, four of which look excellent and a fifth that's very good, a big Giant Bomb backlog and a bottle of Buffalo Trace.

Just keeping my fingers crossed that the wedding I bartended on Wednesday followed by Christmas Eve brunch yesterday doesn't discontinue the streak of health luck I've had all year.

I'm Jewish so Christmas isn't a big deal. Usually I go to a movie and maybe get some Chinese food with my mom and her husband, but this year I'm staying in and just treating it like a relatively normal day. I have been playing Watch Dogs Legion basically all day, and that game is kind of perfect for a long chill out in an open world experience.

I am an pretty extreme introvert and continue to exert it as as a useful superpower for all of 2020.

As such I'm doin' fine. Better in some twisted way as I don't have to stress about going to visit family and instead can skip it without feeling like some sort of ghoul.

Doing juuuuuuuuuuuust fine

Fine. I saw the family a couple of days ago so I'm up to speed on them.

I'm doing fine. I saw my brother for the first time in like 6 months for like 5 minutes yesterday. We gave each other presents outside, while wearing masks and all that.

I baked a pecan pie yesterday that I plan to destroy over the next few days. Took a week off from work just to unwind. Plan on playing through games like Yakuza: Like a Dragon and hopefully catch up on some smaller stuff like that Frog Fractions DLC, Tell Me Why, and Kentucky Route Zero. I assume The Giant Bomb will still be doing their community GOTY lists and all of that in January, so this week will be a good time to do some 2020 gaming cleanup.

Looking forward to seeing Wonder Woman 1984 and may catch up on some TV, but that sounds a little too ambitious and productive for how a lot of my breaks in 2020 have gone.

My wife is a lab tech in the hospital, so she had to work both Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. My family and I have done some zoom calls/phone calls today instead of gathering. I'm just happy my family is taking the pandemic seriously still and all staying home/isolating. Our hope is that everyone is still around next year so we can have a really kick-ass Christmas to make up for this one!

Also thankful, my parents were able to stop by for an hour last weekend to celebrate a bit. We stayed in the garage, masked up, and exchanged gifts while 6 feet apart.

Going to get nostalgic and watch some old home movies and play some Crash 4 later today I think until my wife gets home so we can exchange gifts.

Spending Christmas with family. Just like we normally would.

My fiancé and I can't go see our family, parents age makes it too risky. So we spent Christmas Day today watching the extended LOTR trilogy with some friends on Discord, who also are in the same boat as us.

As I always do since 2013, watching Die Hard. Only this year with a bunch of Christmas themed anime episodes. It feels like a wonderful time.

it sucks! but i'm doing ok. just had a nice zoom sesh with the fam, having another with friends soon.

Doing pretty bad. Been that way for awhile though, nothing in particular about today. Nor does Covid have anything to do with it. Everything is complicated. Wish I had a lady friend, someone to spend time with.

Today was watching Wonder Woman 1984 and Cyberpunk.

I visited my parents and brother today so I didn't really spend it alone. I do wish my family were savvy enough to set up a Zoom meeting or something, but even if they were, none of them would have any of it. Fortunately, they have all been wearing masks and limiting contact outside of the household.

As far as actually spending my night alone, it's fine! I played a ton of Satisfactory with my brother over Discord, I just got off of that and I'm not sure what I'm going to do next. I've already watched the newest episode of The Expanse and I'm not really feeling anymore TV. There are several other games I'd like to play but I need to get away from this desk for a little while.

I've been doing okay. I wish I could spend more time with my family outside of monthly Zoom calls and our way-less-than-monthly group texts about Animal Crossing New Horizons with my sisters-in-law or sister-in-laws (whichever one is the correct plural of brothers' wives, I think it's the former), but I feel like it could be worse. I do miss actually working this year (I got laid off at the beginning of the pandemic like a lot of us have, but I got on unemployment and that's been helping me a lot with rent, food, other money-centric stuff thankfully) since I've noticed I've gained a bit of weight and have been having back issues due to sitting/lying down a lot, but one of my New Years resolutions is to get back into shape.

For those who aren't doing well, I hope you guys found some good in this holiday season even though things are way, WAY beyond fucked up this year. Hopefully, next year will be a lot better and more normal. <3

Honestly? Pretty great. Had some good calls with my family, otherwise mostly just spent my time bumming around my apartment, playing video games (had some infuriatingly close Hades runs), reading, doin' some chores, baking. It was a decent time all around!

I was lucky that with two side quareenteing I could just see my parents. But, I sure do WANT to be with my lady friend I'm 'casual with', she spending the holiday with her roomates - I wish I was with her. :-(

Not terrible, though I live pretty far from family and work is busiest this time of year so they don't authorize vacation time in December unless you've worked there 30 years, so spending the actual holiday on my own isn't too unusual. I did have a nice long call with my folks, who are spending it alone for the first time pretty much ever and my dad seemed to enjoy it (he is the family cook, so this is a year off from the stress for him) and my mom seemed a bit more depressed about it, though that is kind of her default state this year. The pall on all this is the stimulus not getting signed, which thankfully I don't need because I'm still working full time at the same place I've been for years, just from home now. It's more that almost everyone I know needs it now more than ever with evictions looming, bills stacked up and the fridges empty. Even those that got unemployment have been barely getting by because frankly, it doesn't pay shit.

I'm planning on rolling Christmas, new years, my birthday and any other holidays between now and when most those I know can get vaccinated and throw a vaccine party (door charge is you got your shots). You are all invited.

Eh, okay? I don't know, I've never been a big holiday person through much of my life but this entire calendar year been very odd in general so it's tough to say. Despite living in Canada my Dad is a full on Trumper. Combine that with the fact that I've never really had good ties with my family in general, and of course Covid, where their lack of seriousness over it pretty much ended my relationship with any of my family this year. So I did spend the holidays alone this year as opposed to being guilted into spending it around toxic people/toxic situations.

It was welcoming not to deal with the stress of what family brings, but still a bit lonely. With the exception of some messages with a few friends and some folks online my interactions were kept pretty low. I mostly just hung with the roommate watching Jeopardy and played Hades.

That said the best thing for my stress this holiday season was to just pass on some good wishes and joy where possible. There is nothing more cathartic for a lonely X-mas than seeing your good will bring joy to others, seriously. However big or small the gesture, if your feeling down this year due to the situation I'd totally recommend finding an outlet to share and show some support, especially with everything going on the world right now.