I feel like I’ve been brainwashed my entire life from holiday commercials. There’s that diamond commercial when the perfect couple is getting cozy in their enormously expensive house with the fireplace warming their bones in the background, the ideal family is now on display. The woman unwraps and opens that cute and perfectly wrapped Christmas gift, and smiles brightly and warmly to her man as she’s surprised by a special and sparkling diamond ring in that mysterious and crafty box. She smiles with her bright white teeth, and gives her lover a warm hug, as if to say, “You’re getting some tonight!”

The holiday car commercial is better, with a brand new fancy Jaguar parked in the driveway with the giant red bow on the top, and the guy is so surprised and elated! What a lucky guy, and what a perfect Christmas morning! What’s better than being a happy couple during the holidays? The utopian ideals on display with holiday advertising make us want more, do more, and even question buying that expensive diamond engagement ring, that fancy car, or do anything to make our lovely better half happy during the holidays!

Working in Marketing and Advertising for many years, I now have a tendency to see through these marketing ploys that tug at our heartstrings or desire for prestige, happiness, or acceptance. You subliminally want to live up to the hype, have that true love that makes you feel fulfilled and loved in life, the experience that rush of happiness, and this causes you to create high expectations for yourself, which inevitably may lead to disappointment, or you may develop a brooding depression during the holidays with all of the utopian advertising shoved in your face that’s playing with your emotions and visceral expectations of happiness.

How do you handle being single during the holidays? Perhaps you don’t have that ideal and special love in your life that you tend to watch in advertising or movies that you truly desire, or even someone special to spend time with, and to share the holiday memories with your family? Despite the manipulative ads that aim for your happy emotions, being single during the holidays isn’t utterly horrid. In fact, it has many advantages that you may not even consider.

You don’t have scheduling conflicts

The best thing about being single during the holidays is that you don’t have to worry about your girlfriend’s family, and you don’t have to split your time with your better half. You can just attend your family’s holiday events, without the stress of worrying about traveling to visit her family in a timely manner. You don’t have to worry about awkward exchanges with the mother-in-law if she doesn’t like you, you don’t have to worry about rushing around to make it on time to the other family’s Thanksgiving or Christmas. You can take your time, and you also don’t need to worry about stressing or arguing over family scheduling conflicts beforehand. It’s really pretty easy, and not that bad.

More time to do what you want

Perhaps you’re on a week’s holiday break from work. Guess what? You have more time to do what you want! You can do that extra holiday shopping that you’ve been putting off, you can go grocery shopping, you can buy that cool electronic toy that you’ve been eyeing for months, and you can even buy it without having to argue about budgets or money! You can even go to more holiday parties, if you wish, and kiss or spend time with whomever you want. You have the extra time to be self-indulgent as well. You even have more time to visit your friends who are in town for the holidays, without having to argue with your significant other about hanging out with them. You can also spend more quality time with your family and kids.

Save money on gifts

You also won’t have to spend as much money on gifts for your better half, or their family, or the little kiddies on their side. So you can save your money and go buy a stylish and cool Bluetooth jukebox for yourself that lights up the room with colorful LED lights and plays awesome music (writing from personal experience). Hey, I’m going to need something to play my Christmas music! The main advantage and benefit is that you can save some more money, be self-indulgent, and spoil yourself.

Watch a ton of football

Since you don’t need to worry about rushing around, why not relax and enjoy watching a few football games? You can always spend time watching TV with your family, or you can hang out at your Thanksgiving party and actually watch the entire football game, without having to make an early exit out of obligation. I really enjoy more football time. I’m just a big fan of the college and NFL games, and not having to stress and rush about is bliss for me.

No need to please anybody

The only expectations that you set are for yourself and to keep yourself (or your kids) happy, so you don’t have to worry about living that phony commercial that you always see on TV during the holidays. If you buy a Jaguar, it’s going to be for yourself (if you can afford one). That isn’t so bad, is it? Then you can pick up more chicks with it, and start macking on potential women in your shiny new car. You can be selfish because it’s just yourself. You don’t have to measure up to her high expectations.

Stay out as late as you want

If you like going out and socializing, you don’t need to worry about a curfew or consequences from your better half when staying out too late. That means that you can eat turkey longer and drink longer if you were ‘turkey dumped’, stay out later at that employee Christmas party, relax, enjoy some ice-cold alcoholic beverages if you wish for as long as you want to. Just make sure to be safe and responsible.

Being single during the holidays isn’t so bad. The next time that you see that sparkly diamond or car commercial on TV that makes you feel uncomfortable or inadequate, feel free to enjoy your free time during the holidays and live it up! Maybe you’ll be pigging out on pumpkin pie hanging out comfortably with your family or spending fun time with old friends happily laughing and enjoying a few beers. The holidays are a special time for you to feel happy and grateful for what you have in your life and don’t sabotage those feelings by feeling down if you’re still single. Simply embrace the freedom of the holidays!