The holidays are nearly upon us. It is a time for family and old friends. But if we are not dating someone we may feel left out. If this applies to you perhaps you might be tempted to start dating someone just to have a person to bring home for Christmas dinner. Our advice is do not start dating over the holidays. Several years ago we wrote about Christmas dating.

Although you may be wishing for a hot first date, Christmas dating may be difficult as many people are very busy and preoccupied. Remember this when Christmas dating and don’t put excessive demands on your new found friend. If he or she is stressed out over the holidays Christmas dating is a good time to relax, take a breather from the mad rush, and for each of you to talk a little about what is going on and how much you are both wishing that the holidays were over.

One of the risks of dating over the holidays is that you or your new friend will start to feel left out. Another is that the holidays can be very stressful and that stress can easily spill over into your new relationship. We asked if holidays are a good time to start dating someone.

If you not in a relationship it can be a lonely time of the year, feeling like you are being left out of all of the gatherings and fun. It can be tempting to start looking for someone online to dispel the loneliness you are experiencing. But, are the holidays a good time to start dating someone? There is the risk of jumping into a relationship too soon because you are lonely. There is the risk of bringing a relationship along too fast because of all of the family obligations during the holiday season.

Meeting someone new can bring big changes into your life. Those changes can be harder to deal with if you are juggling family obligations, a year end social calendar and perhaps the final stages of breaking up or of a divorce. A good way to deal with a broken relationship is to give yourself time and that does not happen if you start dating over the holidays while dealing with all the other stresses that come with the end of the year.

What are some other holiday dating difficulties? We listed several in this article. We also noted that when dating over the holidays it might be a good time to keep things simple.

If you are looking for sex as opposed to companionship you might be thinking of a hot first date.

Everyone fantasizes about having a hot first date. This often happens but not when everyone is excessively busy and worrying about things outside of the relationship. If you start dating over the holidays it is probably best to have reasonable expectations of what will happen when you go out together. If you are lonely going out with your new friend will help. Talk about things and find fun things to do together. You may not have sex on the first date but you may develop a nice friendship and lasting relationship.

Don’t compound your holiday dating difficulties by going too fast or reaching too far.