How to Have an Enjoyable Christmas When You're Chronically Ill

Christmas. It’s a time for joy, cheer, and celebrations. We spend all year watching our friends and family laugh with loved ones, go out partying and generally being sociable. It is so difficulty watching them and missing out, but there is no harder period than when its the festive period and its all in your face. Every second of every day.

So the million dollar question is…

How can we have a fabulous, enjoyable Christmas?

The answer lies in creating your own happiness, planning and understanding what truly matters.

Many of us have spent our time in and out of hospitals and are too weak to venture out to the shops, face all those crowds and have the pressure of Christmas shopping.

A good idea is to use you. Yes, you. You may feel like a dead loss being unwell, but you are far from it. You dismiss your knitting, sewing, drawing and other hobbies as just pain distractors. But they are so, so much more. Using your skills and your creative mind you can create special gifts. Everyone gets sucked into the commercial side of Christmas and material objects. They forget about friends, family, keepsakes and most of all, life.

We are still living, we breathe the air in and are surviving.

We get wrapped up in our illness and society that we dismiss gratitude. Gratitude is key. We have to be thankful for our lives and our loved ones.

Don’t be worrying about money, budgets and gifts. Use yourselves and inspire yourself to get creative and make their gifts. They will be far more precious and enjoyed by your most loved. You will also get a massive confidence boost in your skills too, which is always a massive positive.

Socializing is the big issue for many. The key is planning and ensuring you have good friends and family in attendance so that you can leave at anytime. With them nearby, you don’t have to worry about silly little things like seating, disability access, food, and chemicals – as your loved ones will help sort all those problems out with you. This will allowing you to feel less worried and be able to enjoy the event.

Pick you battles wisely. You don’t always have to be everywhere in person. You can be there in spirit too.

Go to events you know you will enjoy and can handle. Don’t waste you time and energy going to people’s events you hardly know. Spend your precious time with your strongest support systems.

Be  home bird: This doesn’t mean entertaining, cooking and running round for everyone on the day. It means stay at home, keep warm and comfortable in your own surroundings. When you can nip and take a nap, have access to your own food and be far less worried and relaxed. Your guests can join together and bring the food, drink and help clear up. This helps you not have to worry if you didn’t managed to get dressed out of your jammies, you don’t have to organize transport and you don’t have to worry about wanting to come home when everyone else wants to stay.

Remember: There are no set rules. Create your own!

Happiness and ease are key.

Be a trend setter. Experience your own kind of Christmas, share your skills, celebrate and be thankful for what are important. Let’s show the world how much fun we can have, despite the pain.

I challenge you to have the best Christmas yet!

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