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When we have a special event or milestone in our lives, we often want to celebrate with friends, family, or someone special with a toast of alcohol. However, if you’re trying to give up alcohol or reduce your consumption, there are ways you can signalize memorable moments or special achievements without having an alcoholic drink. Here are six ways you can celebrate special occasions without alcohol.
1. Treat Yourself to a Spa Day
Image via Flickr by Unique Hotels Group
Self-care is one of the best treats you can give yourself, whether you got a promotion at work or are having a birthday. If you’ve found out you’re pregnant and have given up drinking alcohol, you can find a spa that gives prenatal massages to mark the special occasion. Booking a couple’s massage together in the same room is also a romantic way to honour a wedding anniversary.
2. See a Live Show
Seeing a live show, whether a concert or theatre performance, is always a special event and a satisfying way to celebrate something important. You can get caught up in the music or play and feel endorphins and positive emotions flooding through your body.
3. Buy Yourself Something Special
Instead of heading to the local liquor store to buy something to celebrate with, choose to go to a floral shop, small boutique, or artisan gallery. Find something to buy for yourself that will make you smile. While you’re shopping, buy something to give as a gift to someone who supports you and makes you feel special.
4. Take an Art or Cooking Class
Classes can help you focus by putting your energy into learning how to cook, paint, draw, or complete other types of creative activities. If you have a friend or family member who is also abstaining from alcohol, take the class together for fun and support each other. Celebrate the success of your class by cooking a newly learned meal for your family or hanging a piece of your artwork on the wall.
5. Organize a Family Get-Together
Why not have the whole family gather together to honour Dry January and celebrate without alcohol? You can organize a potluck meal where everyone brings their favourite dish and beverages such as flavoured sparkling water, lemonade, infused herbal teas, or nonalcoholic mocktails. The family can make a toast toward the support for each other during Dry January.
6. Go on an Alcohol-Free Cruise
Some cruise ship lines offer alcohol-free adventures. Instead of surrounding yourself with people drinking on a cruise, find a cruise that’s more family-oriented or faith-based, or look for one that doesn’t emphasize alcohol as a major draw. Cruise ship directors on alcohol-free journeys focus on community activities like trivia night or “Jeopardy!” and uplifting entertainment. You can still lounge by the ship’s pool with a frosty nonalcoholic drink and enjoy lavish meals the chefs prepare without adding alcohol to the recipes.
Life is full of special moments, and you can use these suggestions to celebrate them without alcohol. If you or someone you love feels an addiction to alcohol, reach out for help and treatment so you can live a healthy and sober life.
