3 Tips for the Festive Season

Christmas can be a tough time of year if you’ve recently separated. If you’ve been together for years and this is your first Christmas, it’s pretty hard to imagine how difficult it can be, especially if you’ve got kids (read our guide to co-parenting at Christmas if you have children). This blog will help you focus on the right things and stay merry this Christmas.
Many separated couples will have made their arrangements by now, and few want a lecture from anyone else on how you should be spending your first Christmas apart. Here are some tips to help you decide what’s right for you. Please let us know how you get on; your feedback is really important.

1. We are sometimes so focused on making the arrangements that sometimes this can stop us enjoying the moment. Keep your thoughts and energy on the present, not presents(!), this holiday season, rather than focusing on the past.
2. It’s easy to say no to things if you’d rather have time alone but remembering to say yes to spontaneous requests can go a long way and could lead to great times for you. Embrace the parties, winter walks and catching up with friends, old and new. Balance is key, relaxing and time to yourself is very important but so is getting out there and creating new memories.
3. Take the opportunity to create a new chapter in your life, this is your time to spend Christmas in the way you choose. Spend it with friends, family, or go away and get some sunshine if that’s what you want to do.

Get out and do the things you wouldn’t normally do this year – make a Christmas bucket list, keep adding to it throughout the year. Plan to do something for you. Whatever happens don’t sit with friends, family or even a random stranger in the pub, and bemoan your ex. People will always agree with you in those situations – doesn’t make you or them right…

Remember, Christmas is just one holiday. We don’t live in Supermarket Christmas ads, no-one does, so leave the drama to the BBC. Expectations can ruin Christmas so try to keep things simple and embrace the opportunity you have to create something new. From all of us at amicable, have yourselves an amicable Christmas!