Here are 15 things to do on Christmas if you’re spending it alone this year. Make the holiday season festive, cozy, fun, and memorable for yourself!
Spending Christmas alone might not have been part of your original holiday plans.
Maybe your family lives far away, and you couldn’t travel this year.
Maybe Christmas with family is complicated, and staying home actually feels more peaceful.
Or maybe you chose to spend the day alone because a quiet Christmas sounds kind of wonderful right now.
Whatever brought you here, I am glad you are willing to still make Christmas work for yourself and add some cheer, brightness, and festive vibes to it.
There are so many ways to make a solo Christmas feel cozy, festive, and genuinely fun, which we will be exploring in this post.
Here are 15 things to do alone on Christmas to make the day feel like your own celebration.
15 Things To Do Alone On Christmas
1. Buy yourself a present and wrap it up
If there is ever a day to wrap a present for yourself and pretend you have absolutely no idea what’s inside, it is Christmas.
Buy yourself something you’ve been wanting for a while, wrap it properly, put it under the tree, and don’t open it until Christmas morning.
Yes, you already know what it is. That is beside the point.
Buying your present and then wrapping it sitting on the floor will itself make for a fun solo activity.
You can get yourself a beautiful book, fancy pajamas, perfume, a Lego set, new headphones, or something connected to a hobby you love.
You deserve to have something waiting under the tree too.
2. Eat a proper Christmas breakfast
Please don’t wake up on Christmas morning and eat the same sad cereal you have every Tuesday. Make your breakfast an event!
Put on Christmas music, make yourself a hot drink, and cook something you normally wouldn’t bother making on a regular morning.
Pancakes, cinnamon rolls, French toast, waffles, eggs and toast — make whatever feels festive to you. And if you don’t feel like cooking, order in!
Then take your plate somewhere cozy instead of standing around the kitchen eating it.
A slow Christmas breakfast with nowhere to rush off to sounds pretty dreamy to me.
3. Go for a morning walk
There is something so peaceful about stepping outside on Christmas morning when the world is quiet but still sparkly.
You can bundle up, leave your headphones at home, and take a long walk around your neighborhood.
Look at the decorated houses, notice the wreaths on doors, stop somewhere pretty, and get a coffee if anything nearby is open.
If you’re lucky enough to have snow outside, you basically have no choice. You need to go frolic!
4. Have a movie marathon
One of the biggest advantages of spending Christmas alone? Nobody gets to argue with your movie choices.
You can watch cheesy Christmas romances for six hours straight without somebody asking when you’re going to put on a ‘real movie’.
Pick three or four movies beforehand, pile your sofa with blankets and pillows, make popcorn, get some Christmas snacks, and turn your living room into a tiny movie theater.
And yes, rewatching the same Christmas movie you’ve seen twelve times absolutely counts.
5. Cook a feast for yourself
Cooking an enormous Christmas dinner for a lot of people can be tiring.
But making a mini Christmas feast just for yourself sounds adorable.
Choose a few things you love and make yourself a festive plate.
You could cook one special main, make your favorite side, add something delicious to drink, and finish with dessert.
Use your nice plates too.
You don’t need guests before you’re allowed to set the table nicely and light a candle.
Sometimes making a meal beautiful simply because you’re going to eat it is its own kind of self-care.
6. Build a gingerbread house
Adults need more activities that serve no productive purpose, and a gingerbread house is perfect for this.
Get yourself a kit, put on a Christmas playlist, pour something warm to drink, and spend an hour building the most detailed gingerbread cottage possible.
Add too much icing, cover the roof in candy, and give your gingerbread people fun backstories.
And if the entire thing collapses halfway through? That just means you’ll have gingerbread rubble to eat.
7. Call someone you love
Being physically alone on Christmas doesn’t mean you need to disappear from everyone you care about.
Call your parents, sibling, best friend, cousin, or someone you haven’t spoken to in a while.
You could even arrange a virtual Christmas coffee date beforehand so you both make a festive drink, sit down somewhere cozy, and properly catch up.
Sometimes twenty minutes of laughing with someone you love can completely change the energy of your day.
And if Christmas is a difficult day for you, please don’t feel like you have to pretend otherwise.
Reach out to someone who makes you feel safe. It always helps.
8. Get dressed up
You have two excellent options for solo Christmas fashion.
One, you can stay in Christmas pajamas all day. Or two, you can get dressed up even though nobody is coming over.
Both are correct if you ask me.
If dressing up makes you feel good, then do your hair, put on the outfit you’ve been saving, wear your favorite perfume, and take a few photos.
You don’t need an audience before you’re allowed to feel pretty.
And if your dream Christmas outfit is fuzzy socks, an oversized sweater, and a messy bun, that sounds equally perfect as well!
9. Make a snack board
This is especially fun if you don’t want to spend half the day cooking.
Grab a big board or plate and fill it with your favorite Christmas snacks.
You can add cookies, chocolates, fruit, crackers, cheese, candy canes, and little sandwiches.
Carry your board to your sofa and snack your way through a movie marathon.
The best part about making a snack board for one is that you don’t need to include anything just because other people like it.
No unwanted olives taking up valuable real estate.
10. Drive around to see the lights
If you have a car and feel like getting out of the house in the evening, go on a Christmas lights tour.
Make yourself a hot chocolate or coffee to bring along, put on your favorite Christmas playlist, and drive through neighborhoods that go all out with their decorations.
You could even make a rating system and decide which house has the best lights.
There’s something about seeing entire streets glowing with fairy lights that makes you feel part of Christmas even when you’re spending the actual day by yourself.
11. Start a Christmas puzzle
This is such a good activity for the weird stretch of Christmas afternoon when you’ve eaten, watched a movie, and suddenly have no idea what to do with yourself.
Get a beautiful Christmas puzzle, clear off the table, put on some music or an audiobook, and see how far you can get.
It’s slow, cozy, and keeps your hands busy without requiring much brain power.
Bonus points if the puzzle has a snowy little cottage on it that makes you want to abandon your entire life and move into the picture.
12. Bake something to make your house smell like Christmas
Even if you’re not usually a baker, Christmas is the perfect excuse to make something sweet.
Bake cookies, brownies, cinnamon rolls, a small cake, or a recipe that you believe you can pull off.
Half the joy is honestly just having the kitchen smell amazing while Christmas music plays in the background.
And because you’re spending the day alone, there is nobody around to judge how much cookie dough mysteriously disappears before it reaches the oven.
13. Make a time capsule for end of year
With new year just five days away, it is high time to reflect on your life.
So, make a time capsule on Christmas and write down:
- What you’ve loved this year
- What changed for you
- What surprised you
- What you’re currently obsessed with
- The songs you keep playing
- The books you loved
- What you hope your life looks like next Christmas
Collect a few photos, receipts, and little notes, and put everything into a box or envelope.
Then write on the top: Open next Christmas.
It would be a nice present for your future self and also a cozy mindful project to work on Christmas.
14. Give yourself the coziest night
Once it gets dark, make the evening as cozy as you possible can.
Take a long shower or bath and put on fresh pajamas. Turn off the overhead lights and switch on the tree and fairy lights.
Make something warm to drink and get into bed with a Christmas movie or a book.
I’d highly suggest buying yourself a festive bath product, face mask, or fancy body lotion beforehand and having mini Christmas spa night.
This just proves that you don’t need to squeeze twenty activities into the day.
Sometimes a quiet evening where you feel warm, clean, safe, and peaceful is enough.
15. Start your own Christmas tradition
Every year on Christmas, whether I am with family or alone, I curl up in bed with a cozy book after breakfast, and I have mini reading sessions throughout the day till midnight.
It’s a beloved Christmas tradition of mine, and this year, I want to start a new one, and so should you.
- Buy yourself a new ornament
- Read the same book every Christmas Eve.
- Make pancakes every Christmas morning.
- Take a long walk.
- Watch one particular movie.
- Write yourself a letter.
- Donate to a cause you care about.
This year, I am finally going start the tradition of buying a pretty snowglobe. Can’t wait to build my collection and add to it every year!
Your traditions don’t need to come from your childhood or your family. You’re allowed to invent them.
And there is something lovely and empowering about setting your own tone for the Christmas.
It will make the merry festival more personal and special for you.
Your Solo Christmas Still Counts
There can be so much pressure around Christmas to be surrounded by people, attending parties, exchanging mountains of gifts, and having a movie-perfect family celebration.
But real life doesn’t always look like that.
If you’re spending Christmas alone this year, I hope you don’t spend the whole day wishing it looked different.
Put on the music, turn on the lights, make the good food, call someone you love, buy yourself a present, and watch your favorite movie twice.
Let the day be as big or as small as it needs to be (small can still be special).
You might just end Christmas realizing that spending an entire day doing exactly what you wanted was actually pretty wonderful.
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