CHRISTMAS
SURVIVAL
GUIDE
BY DANIEL BROWNE
Christmas. It’s the most wonderful time
of the year, right? For some it absolutely
is and they embrace all of the tinselly joy,
but for others it is a nightmare time of
year that is full of stress and worry. If the
latter applies to you, fear not as your
Christmas fairy is here to help you get
through the festive period with as little
stress as possible.
When approaching this article I was
wondering what angle to take, so I
decided to speak to some friends about
the things that worry them when it
comes to Christmas. The three main
themes that arose were dealing with
family get togethers, being alone at
Christmas, and general sources of
anxiety such as being in a new
relationship, gift giving and splitting
shopping bills. With those themes in
mind, here is my guide to surviving
Christmas.
Family Get Togethers
Are you heading homo for Christmas?
Let’s be honest, it’s not always one’s
favourite thing to do. This is the case
even more so when your family are not
accepting of your sexuality. For some it’s
112 THEGAYUK | ISSUE 17 | DEC 2015
like stepping completely back into the
closet and in other cases you just know
that there will be one family member
who will pick an argument with you.
Dealing with bigoted family members
can be difficult to navigate, more so
when alcohol is thrown into the mix. I
remember the first Christmas after I
came out being t H[