The holidays can be a rough time for the singleton. There are the holiday parties, where everyone arrives arm-in-arm with their significant other. There are the family dinners, in which an aunt innocently asks if you’re still interested in having children, since your eggs are quickly rotting in the womb. And then there’s the panic-inducing New Year’s Eve kiss.
But fear not, unattached friends — one expert says that the holiday season is actually the best time to find a mate (no, really, it’s true). “Everybody’s in the same mindset,” Whitney Casey, relationship expert at Match.com, explains of why this is a luckier time of year to make a romantic connection. “People have the propensity to want to go out immediately, or they want to move it forward because it is the holidays and they have this sense that they need to strike while the iron is hot. People are more vulnerable and they’re really wanting to find a relationship.”
Since more people might be actively looking, Casey suggests taking three crucial steps. As she says, “You definitely need to be out there finding dates, because that’s part of your work in being single.” Here’s what she suggests:
Get online
An online dating profile is a must these days, says Casey. But she adds that this should not be your only avenue for finding a date. “If you looked for a job, you would not just look on one website,” she reasons. “You would tell your friends, you would send your résumé to everyone you knew, you would go to the job fairs and you would get online. This is the same thing, just with a cocktail involved usually.”
Let the world know
“Every family member and friend and colleague and boss, anyone you’re close enough with that they would know [your romantic status] should know you’re single,” she says. “If you’re single and a nice person, people are going to want to help you, so you need to enlist the masses.”
Get out of the house
Don’t be a couch potato. Casey suggests making it a priority to go out at least twice a week. “If you’re ordering in, go to the restaurant and sit at the bar and eat,” she suggests. Be sure to put yourself in the position to meet as many new people as possible.
