After my divorce the year-end holidays were the worst. I even considered checking myself into the psychiatric ward a couple of times out of severe depression. Now I've learned to live through the holidays alone, and if you're in the same position as me you don't need to fret: you can make it through the holidays as happily and carefree as I do.

Getting over Christmas was hard for me. I'm a very good cook, bordering on 'chefdom,' and Christmas used to be all about cooking for family. For four whole days, the kitchen was entirely mine, I accepted no help, and I prepared dozens of perfect, savory homemade dishes. Of course everyone loved it, but probably not as much as me. In a nutshell, I became depressed because I could no longer cook for my children.

It wasn't hard to get over the holiday atmosphere. I discovered pretty quickly that while many people seemed very happy or in romantic moods wandering the central plazas and bedazzled by all the beautiful lights and ornaments, I somehow reached a day (and not to offend anyone out there) when I just started to see all this glitz as gaudy. Christmas d?cor lost its power over me.

In a nutshell, to deliberately use the same expression twice as it sounds 'Chirstmasy,' I finally realized that the best way to cope with the holidays is to avoid them. Just live life like you normally do and take all the glitter at face value. There is no more and no less love at Christmas: I love my daughter just as much on May 16th for example as I do at Christmas time. Consider it time to get something done and, if you don't want to feel sad, don't ritualize it. It might sound like I'm a scrooge, but I pretty much regard Christmas Day like any other.