Tips For A Sober and Joyous Holiday Season – Not Going To The House This Year

This is the second of our tips that we hope will help you stay sober during this holiday season…

2) Just because my family “expects” me to attend their Christmas celebration, does not mean I have to! Some of us come from families that turn into real animal farms of drinking, drugging, arguing, and blaming at Christmas time. These things can be a challenge when you have been sober for a few years. In early sobriety, they come under the heading of things we cannot yet do. So I did not try. There were plenty of occasions when I did not turn up when I was expected because I was too drunk: now there are a couple I have missed because I was too sober! It was more than two years into my sobriety before I could handle my family with any degree of serenity. In the early days, I just did not go. Sure, I got the telephone calls about how Aunt Mathilda has flown all the way from England and really wants to see you. To which my sponsor taught me to respond “Fine: If she really loves me, she will understand that I cannot attend this year. Tell her I am quite happy for her to have a cup of tea with me around here, but I am not coming to the house this year.”

[Tip #1 - "If you don’t want to slip, don’t go where it’s slippery!"]

And, as with the first tip, if you can help with the correct attribution, I’ll be more than happy to edit that in.