Get busy to banish those Boxing Day blues

DEAR MISS LONELYHEARTS: Boxing Day is such a drag for me. I have a hard time getting adjusted to post-Christmas nothingness, when everything feels over and done. There’s less music, less fun and a whole lot of cleaning up.

People are tired and family members start nitpicking and fighting at home. Is there any way to de-escalate from Christmas, so it doesn’t feel like such a big thud with nothing fun ahead? Help.

— Dragging My Christmas Tail, St. James

Dear Dragging: Some people elevate their sagging moods after Christmas with board games or card tournaments — taking on relatives or next-door neighbours.

Some who feel down after Dec. 25 get to work planning a New Year’s Eve event to lift them back up.

Others are so sick of being indoors cooking, cleaning and socializing that they need to get out the house and inhale big lungfuls of fresh air — and maybe dig out the skates or cross-country skis.

Gentler souls may just go on little tours of holiday light displays they didn’t have time to see before Christmas.

Whatever you do, the key thing is to get active mentally or physically to shake the blues. Good luck.

Dear Miss Lonelyhearts: New Year’s resolutions have gotten a bad rap over the years and people seem to break them within the first week. I’m so guilty of that. What can I do to change? I am such a flake.

— Resolution Failure, St. Boniface

Dear Resolution Failure: The best little trick is to make simpler resolutions, using more pledges that begin with “I will do more of,” rather than “less of.” You can handle that more easily, because positivity is definitely way more fun.

Dear Miss Lonelyhearts: I heard a guy trying to cram something in my mailbox outside on Dec. 1, and opened the door. He looked embarrassed and kind of familiar. I asked who he was, and he pulled off his tuque and said, “Hello again. It’s me.”

It was a sexy blast from the past, and he had a present for me. Now we’re dating again and really starting to fall for each other. Woo-hoo. What do you think of that?

—Delighted, North Kildonan

Dear Delighted: Way to go. We need more romance in the middle of our cold winters. Personal holiday card deliveries are a smart way to kick-start old romances that were fun and maybe just broke off for a silly reason that doesn’t exist anymore.

Hand-delivered Valentine’s Day cards are even better. They can stir a lot of new fun, too, and you two would probably be very good at that now that you’re seeing each other again.

Dear Miss Lonelyhearts: I love my children, but they love their father more because he works at home and plays with them all the time. I work outside of the house for a six-figure salary.

In 2026 I want to become the kind of mom they would like to have, who plays with them and takes them out to fun places.

I told my husband this and he said he would hold me to that since the children need to see me as more than a disciplinarian. I asked if that really was true and he said it was, since I’m the one with all the rules.

Now what?

— Big Bad Mommy? East Kildonan

Dear Big Bad: You and your husband need to share the household rule-making and agree on it.

It sounds like your rules are perceived as tougher, and he enforces them, possibly prefacing things with, “Mommy says you have to…”

Ask him if that’s the case and come to an agreement on something more egalitarian for your 2026 “house rules.” Then, get started taking the kids out for fun adventures.

Please send your questions and comments to lovecoach@hotmail.com or Miss Lonelyhearts c/o the Winnipeg Free Press, 1355 Mountain Ave., Winnipeg, MB, R2X 3B6.

Maureen Scurfield
Advice columnist

Maureen Scurfield writes the Miss Lonelyhearts advice column.

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