Holiday Blues: Managing Stress, Loneliness & Grief During the Festive Season

The smell of sunscreen and barbecue smoke. The chaos of shops, Christmas carols, and long, balmy nights. Enter the festive season, a chance to reconnect, celebrate, and welcome in the new year.

But for some of us, this time of year can feel heavy. Alongside the laughter and celebrations, the festive season can also bring stress, crowded calendars, awkward family dynamics, loneliness, grief and the relentlessness of the Australian summer.

If you’re prone to or are experiencing the holiday blues, you’re certainly not alone. Many people feel overwhelmed, sad, or disconnected during Christmas and the wider holiday season, even when surrounded by others.

Why the Festive Season Can Feel Overwhelming

There’s the busy schedule of catch-ups and work deadlines, the never-ending to-do list, the pressure to buy the perfect gifts, and the challenge of packed shopping centres and window shopping while managing financial stress. It all lands at the same time as rising temperatures and social expectations. Add in financial pressures, family tension and old patterns that surface during family gatherings, and it’s no wonder many of us long for a moment to breathe during the Christmas period.

For those in regional communities across WA, distance, seasonal work rhythms such as harvest time, and reduced services over Christmas and New Year’s Day can add another known trigger that makes the holiday season harder to manage.

Loneliness During the Holidays

Recent data shows that almost one in three Australians feel lonely, and around one in six experience severe loneliness.

There is loneliness from being physically alone with minimal interactions, and there is the loneliness that comes from feeling disconnected from family, friends or loved ones even during celebrations or social events.

This sense of isolation can be amplified over Christmas Day and the holiday season and can contribute to Christmas depression or feeling depressed about Christmas.

Honouring Grief: The Empty Chair

Loneliness and grief often sit hand in hand, especially during the holidays. Whether it is the loss of a loved one, distance from family, estrangement, illness or separation, Christmas can intensify sadness in ways that catch you off guard.

If you’re carrying grief this festive season, be gentle with yourself. Give yourself permission to keep, change or skip traditions. You do not have to pretend everything is fine. It is okay to feel sadness, anger, numbness, anxiety or even joy.

Here are some ways to honour who or what you’re missing:

• Light a candle in their memory
• Cook their favourite dish
• Share a story about them
• Take a quiet moment to sit with old photos
• Create a new tradition that fits how you feel now

If you’re supporting someone who is grieving or feeling depressed during Christmas, sit beside them without trying to fix it. Simple presence is powerful. Acknowledging the empty chair can feel more comforting than avoiding the subject.

When Holiday Blues Might Be Something More

It is worth noting the difference between short-term holiday stress and something deeper.

Feeling irritable, tired or a bit low during this time of the year is common, but if you find your mood is persistently low for most of the day, nearly every day, for two weeks or more, or you’re experiencing changes in sleep, appetite, concentration or hope, it may be a sign of something more serious.

Christmas depression, sometimes referred to as Christmas holiday depression or Xmas depression, is real. If you recognise these symptoms in yourself or in someone close to you, speaking with a GP, counsellor or support service can help. Reaching out is a sign of strength, not failure.

Your Holiday Mental Health Checklist

Here are some practical, gentle strategies to make the festive season more manageable and to help you cope with holiday blues:

Make a plan

• Decide in advance what you can give in time, money and energy and honour it.
• The shops can be overwhelming, especially in the heat, so plan ahead, shop online or head out early to avoid crowds and reduce stress.

Keep things simple

• It is okay to scale things back. Sometimes less really is more.
• Presence matters more than presents, and Christmas does not have to look perfect to be meaningful.

Nurture your body

• Aim for some form of movement each day. A slow walk to digest Christmas lunch, a backyard cricket match, kicking the footy with the kids, a swim to cool off, or gentle stretching can help regulate your mood.
• Go easy on alcohol and drinking, especially if you notice that alcohol worsens anxiety or sadness.

Create breathing space

• You do not have to say yes to every social gathering or event. Map out your commitments and give yourself permission to say no.
• Build in quiet moments. Take an early morning walk with the dog, enjoy a slow cuppa, or relax with a Christmas movie or two.
• (And yes, Die Hard absolutely counts as a Christmas movie.)

Prioritise connection

• List one person you can reach out to and send them a text, give them a call, or arrange a catch-up.
• Arrange a FaceTime call with your loved ones.
• Send someone an old-school Christmas card in the mail.
• Check in on a neighbour.
• If you live regionally, work FIFO, or live far from family and friends, connection often takes more intention but can create a real sense of belonging:
  • conversations at the yard gate,
  • dropping by the local Men’s Shed,
  • a game of cricket at the oval,
  • heading down to a community event hosted by your local shire or CRC,
  • joining online groups or forums that focus on your interests,
  • volunteering to support a local cause.

You Don’t Have to Navigate This Alone

If the festive season feels heavy or you’re struggling with the holiday blues, support is available.

For ongoing support:

• At Holyoake, we walk alongside individuals, families and communities across WA, metro and regional. Whether you need someone to talk to, support for a loved one, or help navigating Christmas with depression or the holiday blues, we are here. Our support is free and confidential.
• Holyoake – Get Support (free counselling for adults, families, and young people across metro and Wheatbelt regions)
• Holyoake – Mental Health Services
• Friends & Families Support (if you’re supporting someone else)

Our services take a short break from Chirstmas Day and reopen on the 2nd of Jan, so if you reach out during that time we will respond as soon as we return. If you need immediate support while we are closed, the services below are available 24 hours a day.

If you need immediate support:

• Lifeline: 13 11 14 (24/7 Crisis Support) – webchat and text also available
• 13YARN: 13 92 76 (24/7 Crisis Support for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people
• Beyond Blue – 1300 224 636
• MensLine – 1300 789 978
• 1800RESPECT – 1800 737 732
• Call 000

Frequently Asked Questions