Grief After Divorce: Why the Holidays Hurt and What Actually Helps

You can be functioning, coping, even doing “okay”… and then December arrives. Suddenly, old memories, family images, and rituals echo through your body whether you want them to or not.

I’ve worked in the grief field for years, and there is something about the holiday season that brings a very particular kind of heaviness. Whether the loss is through death or divorce, December has a way of stirring emotions that stay quiet the rest of the year. In my support groups, people often began expressing holiday anxiety as early as October. The dread wasn’t imagined; it was embodied.