Gratitude and healing during the holidays

By: Chad Spangler, Programs & Partnerships Director 

During the holidays, we pause to give thanks and gratitude. At Eversight, we are eternally grateful for our donors and their families, as well as the selfless decision they made to give the gifts of sight, life, and mobility. This season can be especially challenging for those managing grief during the holidays, and we are proud to support families as they find meaningful ways of honoring their loved ones who gave such transformative gifts. 

The holiday season is often a time of joy where people gather to celebrate with their loved ones. For those who have experienced loss, however, the holidays can lead to heightened feelings of grief, isolation, sadness and many more complicated emotions.  

For those struggling to navigate the holidays, we have compiled a list of tips and strategies from grief experts, clinicians and peers that we hope will help you manage your grief while also honoring the memory of your loved one this holiday season. 

• Acknowledge your feelings. When you are grieving the loss of someone you love, celebration can feel foreign, so it’s natural to feel sad or miss your loved one during the holidays. It’s important that you allow yourself to feel your emotions without judgment.
• Set realistic expectations. Understand that it’s okay to adjust your approach to the holidays. You don’t have to participate in every event or do everything that you might have done during past holiday seasons. 
• Take time for yourself. Plan moments of solitude for self-reflection and self-care. Engage in activities that nurture your well-being, such as reading, exercising, taking walks or meditating. 
• Limit social obligations. It’s okay to decline invitations or to opt out of certain activities if they feel too painful. Prioritizing your mental health is the most important thing to do.  
• Ask for support. The holiday season often adds additional tasks to people’s to-do lists that can be overwhelming at the best of times. When you’re grieving, holiday tasks such as shopping or decorating may feel like too much. If the task is one that is important to you but that you don’t have the energy to complete, ask a friend or family member for help. 
• Seek help. If grief feels particularly heavy, consider talking to a therapist who specializes in grief counseling. They can provide strategies tailored to your individual needs. 
• Be kind and gentle with yourself. Recognize that grief is a process and there's no right or wrong way to feel during the holidays. Allow yourself to heal at your own pace. 

Life ends with death, but the love you and your family have for who you lost remains. Finding ways to honor that love and incorporating it into your holidays can help ease the grief you are feeling. So, instead of ignoring the loss, look to forge new traditions that honor the memory of your loved one.  

• Set a place for your loved one at the table. 
• Light a candle for who you lost. 
• Write a memorial honoring their legacy.  
• Set aside time to reminisce and ask people to share their favorite memory of your loved one.  
• Create a holiday scrapbook of pictures or other mementos from past holidays.  
• Make memorial ornaments or wreaths. 
• Make a favorite recipe of theirs. 
• Visit their grave site or place of rest. 
• Watch a holiday movie or TV show they loved. 
• Make a donation in their memory or volunteer to a cause that was important to them. 
• Set up a memory table and place pictures, mementos and/or notes to your loved one. 
• Hang a stocking in memory of your loved one and invite friends and family members to put notes to them inside.