337. 5 Ways to Survive the Holidays as a Widow
The Widowed Mom Podcast
Krista St-Germain
4.9 • 695 Ratings
🗓️ 10 November 2025
⏱️ 10 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Are you bracing yourself for the holidays?
The holidays after loss can feel like navigating an emotional minefield. One minute you might laugh at a memory, the next you're crying over a Christmas card. And that exhausting voice in your head keeps saying you should be doing more, feeling different, or holding it all together better. Here's what I want you to know: You don't have to love the holidays. You don't have to make them magical. You definitely don't have to hold it all together.
Join me this week to discover how to decide what matters most this year, how to protect your energy by choosing your level of participation, and why emotional whiplash is completely normal during the holidays. I'll also share simple ways to include your person in the season and why simplifying, resting, and receiving help are essential for getting through this time.
Join my free, 3-day live workshop, Happier Holidays for Widowed Moms, to learn 3 simple ways to make this season easier. It’s happening November 18th-20th, 2025, and you can register here: https://www.coachingwithkrista.com/freeholidayevent/
Get full show notes, transcript, and more information here: https://www.coachingwithkrista.com/337
Mentioned in this episode:
Celebrate Turning 50 With Me!
As part of my 50 Widows Forward celebration, you can currently receive 10% off Grief Essentials or Mom Goes On. This offer ends June 20… or when 50 widows join. Get the discount code and more information by going to: https://the-widowed-mom-podcast.captivate.fm/50widowsforward
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Welcome to the Widowed Mom Podcast, episode 337, five ways to survive the holidays as a widow. |
| 0:10.2 | Welcome to the Widowed Mom podcast, the only podcast that offers a proven process to help you work through your grief to grow, evolve, and create a future you can truly look forward to. |
| 0:24.2 | Here's your host, Master Certified Life Coach, Grief Expert, Widow, and Mom, Krista St. Germain. |
| 0:32.8 | Hey there, welcome to another episode of the podcast. |
| 0:36.0 | If you listen to last week's episode, we talked about why the holidays can feel so heavy after loss, how the brain and body respond to a season that used to feel familiar, but now feels unpredictable. And if you haven't listened yet, I definitely recommend going back. It'll help what I'm sharing today make even more sense. |
| 0:57.1 | Because now that we understand why it can be so hard, today we're going to talk about how we can make it a little easier. |
| 1:04.7 | You don't have to love the holidays. You don't have to make them magical. You definitely don't have to hold it all together. But there are some things that you can do that will make this time of year easier to navigate and a little less exhausting. And when we're done with the podcast, I'll invite you to a free holiday event that I've created just for widows that's coming up next week. So let's talk about five ways to survive the |
| 1:29.9 | holidays as a widow. Number one, decide intentionally what matters most this year. Many widows go |
| 1:39.6 | into the holidays on autopilot, trying to do what's always been done, what other people expect, |
| 1:46.3 | what they think their kids need. But if your person died, everything has changed. You can |
| 1:53.0 | give yourself permission to pause and ask what's truly important to me this year? Maybe that's connection. |
| 2:02.2 | Maybe it's rest. |
| 2:03.8 | Maybe it's getting through quietly and just surviving. |
| 2:07.7 | When you decide on purpose what matters, it becomes easier to let go of what doesn't. |
| 2:15.4 | Let's get off of autopilot. We're not giving up traditions if we do it |
| 2:20.7 | differently. Let's choose to take care of ourselves and enter this season with intention. |
| 2:28.0 | Number two, choose your level of participation ahead of time. Also give yourself permission to |
| 2:33.8 | change your level of participation at any time. Also give yourself permission to change your level of participation |
| 2:35.0 | at any time. Go into the holiday the whole season, deciding that you get to set the terms this year. |
| 2:43.8 | Maybe you'll attend one gathering and skip the next. Maybe you will decorate less or not at all. |
| 2:50.6 | Maybe you will spend the day out of town, or multiple days. |
| 2:55.0 | Whatever you choose, make it intentional, not reactive. You are allowed to protect your energy. |
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