From Nicole with wishes for a happy holiday season:

When I gave up alcohol in 2020, I didn’t specifically choose to stop drinking during the holidays. More accurately, I realized very definitively on the night of December 5, 2020, drink in hand, that I couldn’t continue the way I was going. As they say, the pain of staying stuck suddenly became far greater than the pain of changing.

I’m grateful every day for that realization, and for the strength I found to make a change. That first holiday season, however, wasn’t the easiest. I was launched into a busy time of year with very little knowledge of alcohol-free products or even how sobriety was going to go for me. This was before the NA world took off so I faced a lot of questions at holiday parties and didn’t have a lot of answers—or at least not ones I felt comfortable sharing. My first priority that month was to find something to sip at night to replace my nightly martini(s) and a bottle of NA wine so I could rest easy knowing that I wouldn’t be pairing children’s drinks with my Christmas meal. (Once a foodie, always a foodie.) It took a year to start making connections in the alcohol-free space and to get more comfortable with sobriety. 

Today I look back at the old me—cooking Christmas dinner for nine, sitting at the head of the table with my NA red wine—with love and compassion. If you are exploring sobriety this holiday season, or have been sober for years, I hope you will remember the older versions of yourself in the same way.

While it’s never easy to start on this path, I’ll say from experience that—perhaps contrary to popular belief— the holidays can offer a fun distraction to make sobriety easier. For me, the key was being prepared, and fortunately, these days, there are a multitude of choices available to help you do just that.

In addition to my sober anniversary, this month, I’m celebrating the two-year anniversary of AFTER Magazine (officially launched on December 1, 2022).  I love bringing you alcohol-free content every quarter and special guides like this light-hearted holiday guide to make your season bright.

I look forward to more of the same in 2025!

Happy Holidays to all!

With love, Nicole