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Boozy Christmas Past | First Time Christmas Without Alcohol | SDA49

by | Stop Drinking Alcohol, Year One | 0 comments

Stop Drinking Alcohol Week 49 – Christmas and No Alcohol

I’m Kevin O’Hara for Alcohol Mastery. This is Stop Drinking Alcohol Week 49.

Christmas: The Season of Drinking?

Today I’m talking a little bit about Christmas. It’s the time that in it’s a couple of weeks away and it just feels, to me especially, that Christmas plays a massive part in your life when you’re a drinker. I really can’t think of any other time of the year when so much is packed into such a short space of time. Maybe holidays, vacations…a couple of weeks where you’re away and you’re drinking all the time, but just at Christmas it seems like everything happens at once.

I think from that perspective it’s very unique to the drinker because it’s when all the celebrations just seem to coincide, all your family are coming together, you drink loads, you eat loads, you’re celebrating this and that, you’re watching TV all the time, there’s no work…

For me, it always started out with getting the booze. The local shops would be packed, the supermarkets would be jam-packed with alcohol. I don’t know if I see that here in Spain, I’m not sure if I’m blinded to it and not looking for it anymore, but it doesn’t seem to be the same way. It was also a time when I’d basically drink anything. I’d be drinking beer, drinking Guinness, Lager, Smithwick’s, ale, wine, white wine, red wine, rose wine, all sorts of spirits, champagne, liquors…just anything and everything, and all because it was Christmas.

Christmas Office Parties in the Past

I really start my drinking, as anyone knows in the West, as soon as the office party has begun. If there was no office party we used to create them, so there’d be celebrations in almost every pub. The lads we were working with, you’d have celebrations.

It always started well before Christmas. Some of the Christmas parties, before I left Ireland, used to start at the end of November. But the drinking at home never really started until Christmas Eve-ish. We’d start on Christmas Eve, but then when we’d start there was no stopping until well after the New Year. By the time New Year came, you were just so sick of drinking, you’d drank so much and poisoned yourself so much that it’s no wonder so many people make New Year’s resolutions to never drink again.

A Brand New Christmas

This Christmas I think is gonna be a very strange time but I think it’s gonna be wonderful. I’m really looking forward to it. I’m going to two of my sisters that are here for Christmas, so we’re going to one sister on Christmas Day and on Boxing Day – Steven’s Day in Ireland, Boxing Day in the UK, I don’t know if they have that in America – we’re going to another sister.

It’s all gonna be completely brand new but that’s what I’ve been finding in the whole year so far and I don’t expect it to change. It’s gonna be brand new, I’m sure I’m gonna take a lot of piss-taking because I’m gonna be meeting up with people that I haven’t seen for quite a long time, some of them I haven’t seen since last year. I’d imagine there’s gonna be some piss-taking, but then again, there’s gonna be people that know how much of an effect not drinking has had on my life, how much of a positive effect so…I’m looking forward to that as well.

It’s nice to get positive affirmations from other people. Everyone likes to be told that they’re looking well, especially from relations.

My Son Coming Over for Christmas

Really for me, the thing I’m most looking forward to is my son coming over. He’s coming over next Monday as I speak, that’s the 23rd. I’m just so looking forward to seeing him. I haven’t seen him in 6 months – over 6 months now, so…Really looking forward to spending some quality time with him, especially not drinking.

He’s gonna go on New Year’s Eve. He wants to spend the New Year with his mates. I can’t blame him for that, he’s gonna have a better party with them than he will with me. I spoke to him earlier on this morning and he said, “I sure won’t be drinking much.” That’s good to hear.

Setting a Good Example

For me, it’s just a great opportunity now to be able to show a more positive side, to show a good example. I think as a parent, it’s never too late to do that – to show a good example to your kids.

I think it’s never too late to show anyone a positive example. Your children I think would benefit from it the most. I think with other people, your friends and people around you, your extended family…I think they do benefit but they don’t accept it as readily. It’s the best way of convincing anybody else of the benefits of quitting drinking is by you leading by example.

So you quit drinking and everybody sees the positive results in the way you look, in the way you hold yourself, in the way you’re leading your life, how you’re not flushing it down the toilet anymore but you’re actually doing something positive with your life.

That’s what other people and it’s when they see this that they start to think about themselves in this way…when they start to think that maybe it’s not such a great idea to be drinking after all.

Breaking New Ground

Christmas for me now is all about breaking new ground again. It’s doing something that I haven’t done in a long time, but that’s been my year so far. I’ve had so much fun doing it as well.

I really expect to have a great time, and I expect to be tired after everything is over and the New Year…I expect to be very tired, but not because I’ve been poisoning myself. Because I’ve put myself out and done things with my son, with my family, and just being tired because I’ve done so much and I’m exhausted.

That’s how I want to be at the start of the New Year. Refresh outlook, and looking forward to a good year next year.

Until Next Week

So next week I’m gonna be focusing a bit more on how much better I feel in my first year off alcohol. Until then, if you have any questions at all, as usual leave them on the website or down below on Youtube.

Until next time…

I’m Kevin O’Hara for Alcohol Mastery.

Onwards and upwards!

Thanks for visiting the site.
Until next time…
Onwards and Upwards!
Kev

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