Expats, and immigrants. Know the holidays highlights what's missing when you are far away from your family and traditions. In today's episode, you are going to hear four easy tips to beat your holiday loneliness, create new traditions, and help you build community in the USA. Welcome to starting over in the USA, the Expat Woman's Guide to overcoming Homesickness, embracing cultural Differences, and creating a new home away from home. On this podcast, we talk about leaving behind the familiar, the pangs of homesickness and culture shock to the journeys of reinventing yourself. I'm Yolanda Reshemah. After relocating six times, I know firsthand what it's like to start from scratch feeling like both a foreign child and an adult in a new world. Every Friday, I'll share mindset shifts and practical tools to support your journey. Join me with some incredible guests every Wednesday as we spill the secrets of what we wish we'd known, the triumphs we celebrate, and the mess ups we've learn from. Imagine arriving in a new country during december, the streets are sparkling with Christmas lights, but instead of joy, you feel the weight of distance. Families far away and your traditions kind of feel out of reach. There's that streak of loneliness, which sometimes echoes a little bit too loud, louder than the carols blasting out of those department stores. Because for expats and immigrants like us the holidays can be both the hardest, the most woeful, or wonderful time of the year as well. Christmas magnifies belonging, it's about family, rituals and community. And for expats it can be a highlighter of what's missing, also a highlighter of what you can create. Many immigrant communities had to build their first connections around Christmas, in the holidays, around potlucks and church services or culture centers. The holidays remind us that belonging isn't just the inherited traditions, but the traditions we've built, one invitation at a time, and that's what it's become for us here in the USA from my Small family cell. I am thinking about inviting two people that I believe are likely to spend Christmas on their own. It means my house will be filled, that I am going to have a couple of other people help me prepare the meal, choose the Christmas movies that we are gonna watch. Help me create the dessert. Do all of the things that I would otherwise normally do with my family. Back in England. Our traditions back there are a little bit over the top. Our traditions include. Apple crumble, which is never just apple. It's the pears and the all spice and it's the vanilla essence and bay leaves oh, that reminds me of another tradition Bailey's Irish cream. Every Christmas, there's likely to be two or three oversized bottles. We pop those cogs open. We pour a little bit for everybody, just the adults. We turn on the Pink Panther Christmas movies because we like a good laugh. And we've been watching the same ones year after year. And still find them funny. We are all gathered together in a small living room. Maybe 13 or 14 of us. Everybody's littered around dinner tables, on the sofas, on the floor, eating all the stuff that we love. Drinking the juices and the waters and the wines that's our tradition, playing the most savage version of Uno till the early hours of the morning, but I'm not gonna have that this year, and that's okay. First time in ages. We are going to have Christmas here in the USA. We are going to start creating our own traditions here, and that's what I'm encouraging you to do. Even though you are away from your family and everything you are used to doing You can be in company of people who care about you, and create traditions dear to you. Here are some tips for building communities from scratch, if you find yourself alone this Christmas. The first is for you to start small, invite one neighbor, or a colleague. Because community starts with one brave outreach. The second tip is to blend traditions,. Host a"bring a tradition" gathering, shares food or stories. Share what you are looking forward to in the new year. The third tip, create a space where everybody knows they're safe. Whether it's a small living room, an online group or a park bench, if that's the only space you can easily get to. The fourth tip is create some rituals that are your own even simple acts like light in a few candles in your living room, decorating together with a couple of people Exchange a card, a small gift if you have the capacity to do so. These little rituals are often poo-pooed, but I have found that the rituals you create anchors, you and the people you want to connect with, and it means that you now have something in common. Being brave enough to offer that to somebody means a great deal. They will feel included and so will you, you're building community. Community doesn't require a crowd. It just requires consistency It requires kindness and courage because you are likely to be afraid of being rejected. Oh no, I'm gonna be busy and absolutely some people are gonna say that I'm gonna be busy. No, I don't feel that. That's something I want to do. That's okay. Just offer it. They may not join you now. But next year, they probably will. You just have to get it started, and all it takes is one, two, or three of you. I'm going to start with Christmas cards. I haven't seen Christmas cards handed out here, so I'm going to start doing that because those are some of my happiest memories being in school every one of us buying cheap Christmas cards, packs of 25 and 50, writing humorous sarcastic notes, I remember the joy of ripping open those envelopes and reading those messages. Taping them to the wall in your bedroom, feeling happy because your friends chose to buy Christmas cards and remembered to give you one. So that's what I'm going to do now. Share Christmas cards with the people who matter to me. That's it from me today. I have got to go and start packing for this trip. When I'm in England. I'm going to tell you all about the stuff I've thoroughly enjoyed.. And what Christmas there is really like. I'll probably share some short video clips on Instagram as well. Enjoy the rest of your day. Bye-bye.