Ask anyone what it’s like to be single at Christmas, and chances are they’ll picture a frazzled woman wailing on her sofa with a bottle of red wine in one hand and a cig in the other. She’ll be frizzy-haired and puffy-eyed, hungover but somehow also drunk, and surrounded by a graveyard of chocolate wrappers.
This is the social script we’ve all been sold—and not just by Bridget Jones. So entrenched is the idea that being single at Christmas is a crime against humanity that there is an entire dating trend (“cuffing season”) dedicated to the idea of buddying up with someone purely to get you through the holiday season, because God forbid you have to go it alone. Cue more sofa wails and pitying looks at family gatherings when relatives ask you about your love life.
But having done Christmas as a single woman a few times now, I can say with quite a lot of certainty that this sad little act we’ve seen play out on screen ad nauseam (see also: The Holiday) doesn’t have to be the reality. In fact, I’d go as far as to say that this is the best time of year to be single, regardless of what Christmas rom-coms tell us.
Think about it. Aside from December, is there any other month when, everywhere you look, there is something, somewhere, designed to make you feel jolly? Christmas lights lining the street. Obnoxiously large trees bringing some pizzazz to shop windows. Silly little ornaments dangling from just about anything with a hook. Whether you celebrate Christmas or not (I don’t), there is an undeniable spirit of joy dancing around us during the festive period.
This feeling is compounded, too, by our jam-packed calendars. There are work parties. Annual reunions with old friends. Complain about it all you like, but it’s objectively a lot more fun to be fluttering between various social occasions, often clad in velvet or sequins, with the knowledge that you may or may not kiss someone, as opposed to sitting at home, working out ways to avoid your in-laws.
The sheer volume of socializing at this time of year also offers you ample opportunity to have some sort of romantic liaison under the mistletoe. We just don’t get that very often anymore, particularly not in summer, when people are traveling, jumping between annual family vacations, couples’ retreats, and weddings. And even if nothing happens, it’s still nice to know that it could.
