01/12/2025
We all wish Christmas could be like the movies — cosy firesides, twinkly lights, good food and warm company. A time to slow down and relax.
But the truth is, Christmas isn’t always a happy time for everyone.
For many, it brings up loneliness, grief, addiction, stress, or the impact of domestic violence. The pressure to be cheerful can feel heavy. Sometimes the hardest thing is feeling like everyone else is enjoying it — while we’re struggling just to get through the day.
We might still be worrying about presents, dinners, schedules, or finishing work before the holidays. We watch people we love putting pressure on themselves. And inside, we might be struggling too.
This time of year has a way of bringing things to the surface — things we may have managed to push aside until now:
• Going over conversations again and again in our heads
• That churning feeling in the gut before a difficult talk
• Lying awake at night replaying things
• Seeing our kids withdraw, or act out
• Feeling overwhelmed by the to-do list — and yet doing nothing
• Scrolling the phone just to escape reality for a while
• Feeling irritated by everyone and everything
• Snapping at the people we love, even when we don’t mean to
We get so good at masking what’s really going on — even from ourselves. But it can slowly build a wall between us and the life we want.
Christmas can be the time that breaks us…
But maybe it can also be the time we choose something different.
Maybe this year, we give ourselves — or someone we love — the gift of change. The gift of support. The first step towards feeling different next Christmas.
It doesn’t have to be perfect. Just a step in the right direction.
Give yourself or your loved one a real gift this Christmas.
Merry Christmas from all at Mosaic Counselling & Psychotherapy.