Do you suffer from holiday depression?

If not, what did you do?
If so, how do you cope?

Nope.
I remember the reason for the holidays.
I give thanks for what and who I am now. Thanks for what I was able to avoid.
Christmas, I am awed by Christ being born and how he's our promise that anything is possible.
I'm alone, yes. Rarely lonely.
When I do start feeling sorry for myself, depressed or lonely, I look around for someone in need and offer a kind word or more, if I can respond.
I guess, the point to my rambling would be, getting out of my head and looking for ways to be of service helps to overcome holiday blues.
Side note. The Bay area, as I recall, is small town. To look for these opportunities, you might need to go towards Gulfport or Biloxi to find places to vollunteer. Volunteering offers many means of getting grateful.

Thanx fer sharing.
So, as to the topic at hand.
No

I get that, I really do.
So, from your own response, you get your strenght from your belef in God.
I can understand that. I have no problem with that.

Is there anyone else who deals with holiday depression in a different way?

No, and I don't get people do have that either. Well, I can get it but it means that you aren't happy.
I don't know whether or not I'll be alone this year, chances are I will be. But then I'll make something of it myself. I don't want to force my kids to spend time with me if they got other things to do and I still don't dare drive far after my bad dizzy spell earlier this year so going somewhere myself is out of the question.

I do prefer to spend Christmas day with family or partner, Boxing day I like to be alone. Just have my croissant breakfast, play Christmas songs and enjoy the day.

Actually, NYE is the worst although I think I got over that funk by going away last year. I would've loved to do that again this year, celebrate it at the spiritual centre. But again the driving... it's a 1hr 15mins drive. I just daren't.
So this year NYE will likely be watching fireworks in my garden while sipping a glass of bubblies.

I won't even have the time to feel lonely or depressed. Usually working those days, which is quite normal in healthcare.

I struggle before because of the pressure to go shopping, buy gifts, bake and extra house cleaning. It's also a time when I remember how much I missed loved ones who aren't here with me.

Holliday Blues.
This to, shall pass.

If you do suffer from this try helping someone out. It works for me and stay busy!

Right as rain.

Sun exposure good for mental and physical health.

The ideal amount is 15 minutes of direct sunlight per day, or an equivalent amount of time from indirect sun or other UV light (but no more than 20 minutes of direct sunlight in one day, because this causes the skin to start to burn, even if imperceptibly),

ideally with maximum skin exposed such as with shorts and t-shirt that (human ancestors may have been half naked),

ideally during light exercise like walking.

Vitamin D3 (1000 to 4000 IU/day for an extended period of time) can also help since it is a vitamin produced by sun exposure.

yes

Good suggestions. I believe most equate the depression around holiday time to be because of the holidays, and it may very well be lack of sunshine instead. The holidays begin a couple months after summer and with the weather getting colder, more people are apt to stay indoors or cover up with warmer clothes, leaving only their face exposed to the sun.

I suffer from holiday depression and I often wanted to help out in a soup kitchen but there is none around. I am going to see if there is anything like delivering meals to the needy in the area. I think helping out in this can help me out of the funk this time of year puts me in.

Not my abroad holidays but I do feel unsettled on the last night ,going back to reality I suppose,this year I think will be The first Christmas day of my life on my own,I live on a leisure park and there will be folk about , but the actual dinner will be a ready meal for one , on the other hand I have spent many New years eve's on my own reflecting on the last year and thinking what the next will bring and how many nexts there will be

No depression here whatsoever, but then, I am a blond so
it is all a lot of bling to us ;-)

Peeps seem nicer, though hurrier.

I have fun helping my family ... decorate for Christmas inside and out ...


honestly I get depressed anytime... every day ...I think about my daughter ...and my grandchildren ... I wish we lived closer to one another ...

of coarse I can visit anytime ... but sometimes I get stopped in my tracks...
when its not me ... and stuff is just out of my control ...

Nope, I don't.

But as with lots of stuff, it isn't because I'm smart, or know what to do instead or anything like that.

I think I'm just lucky.

I was depressed a LOT when I was younger, and during holidays, the intense sense of obligation to perform in various ways for friends and family and society in general made most holidays excruciating. The only thing I liked, were the days off school or later, work.

Over time, I found various ways to reduce the stress, such as letting people know how horrible I was at gifts (not a skinflint, just abjectly terrible at scheduling when to do things for people), and ask them to just say what they wish someone would get them, out loud.

Mostly, I gradually realized that holidays weren't what they were fabled to be, as I thought when I was a kid. Frankly, only VERY few people really follow through with them in the complicated and dedicated way that I thought I had to back then.

Lots of people WATCH the traditional Christmas shows, but almost no one acts on the values and so on in them.

Partly it's because I got used to myself and my defects. It's a lot like not being able to play basketball well, and finally accepting that. I'm lousy at holiday celebrations, so when I do a mediocre job for the sixty-sixth year in a row, I actually laugh at myself, rather than go off on self-destructive self criticisms as I once did.

What would make you feel happier, even if children are out of your control?

I actually don't 'celebrate' any holiday anymore (not even birthdays).
To me, its just another day.

I do realize others make a big deal of them.
I can wish someone a Happy Thanxgiving, Merry Christmas or Happy Independence Day but I no longer need that boost.

I do not own any decorations, at all.
I do not sit and stare at other's decorations (unless they have art value).

I do watch seasonal movies but I watch the same movies anytime of year, when I feel like it.

I post horror movie lists for others at Halloween.
I post Christmas movies and music for others at Christmas.
http://ghostown.freeforums.net/thread/4162/christmas-movies-random-entries-limited
I post national pride movies at Independence Day.
I do this because I know it means a lot to some people.

I too no longer feed my depression.
I still get the blues from time to time but everyone gets the blues.
http://ghostown.freeforums.net/thread/3903/

Your serenity is always your choice.
It may seem impossible to beat the blues but it is all a matter of how you look at things.
The holidays can give you a reason to feel sorry for yourself.
If you feed it.
The trick is, stop feeding your depression.
Stop allowing it to have power over you.
If you can't have Happy Holidays, settle for just holidays or just another day.