Xmas 2025 PPN Blog

Tinsel, Trees and Tunes!

There are Christmas trees and tinsel all around and Christmas music plays everywhere you go. It can mean only one thing - 2025 is nearing an end and 2026 is just around the corner.

For some, Christmas is a happy time of year – an opportunity to leave work behind for fun with family and friends and to support one’s wellbeing.

For others, Christmas is more challenging. Being with families can bring tension and worse and work or school suddenly become appealing.

For those working over Christmas, the experience can be a mixture of positives and negatives. For some work can feel like a burden and a chore to work in addition to festive expectations. For others, work can be a relief providing a clear purpose and clearly defined tasks.

For the NHS and associated staff, it has been yet another year of uncertainty and stress with changes proposed, plans still emerging and lack of clarity on individual future employment (whether imposed or by choice). There are ongoing pressures and challenges to manage the demand.  

Looking more widely, it can be hard to see how things can improve as conflicts continue and hostile political debate drags on. Feeling helpless and continuing to doomscroll can feel like the only logical way to manage. Many of us may feel lonely and unconnected and this can happen whether we are alone or with others.

So, what can we do?

Psychological professions numbers have doubled over the past ten years reflecting recognition of our contribution to health and care. There are emerging opportunities for us to contribute further.

Individually, connecting with others and being able to share concerns as well as good things can help.  Having shared experiences with those whom we can relate to positively can help too – maybe, with a trusted friend, that work Christmas event will turn out to be OK?

Recently, in our PPN blogs, we’ve highlighted the power of music, and this got me thinking about Christmas songs.

When I started looking, I hadn’t realised the breadth of songs around capturing different experiences of Christmas. These range from the silly, fun songs -  All I want for Christmas is my two front teeth, Rudolf – to songs focussing on relationships: it’s difficult to escape ‘All I want for Christmas is you’ or the perhaps ‘Last Christmas’ and ‘Fairytale of New York’. 

Then there are songs making wider points, ‘Stop the Cavalry’, ‘Merry Christmas (War is Over) and the well-intentioned ‘Do they know it’s Christmas?’ as well as the exuberantly enthusiastic ‘I wish it could be Christmas every day’, ‘Wonderful Christmastime’… and older and newer songs too.

There will be a song that works for each of us as well as those we would really rather not hear again!

Perhaps we can connect with others in finding a selection and sharing them with friends, families, or colleagues.  This could be a Christmas version of five ways to wellbeing:

• Connect - ‘It’s the most wonderful time of the year’.
• Learn - ‘The Twelve days of Christmas’.
• Give - ‘Santa Baby’
• Take Notice - ‘Let it snow’.
• Keep Active – ‘Rockin’ around the Christmas tree’

I’m sure you can all think of different variations.  Karaoke is permissible but not compulsory!

Then there’s the novelty Christmas hits but, perhaps that is for another time – ‘We built this city…on sausage rolls!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year, from the PPN.