No matter who your family is, where you live, or what holidays you do or don't celebrate- everyone needs a break from their families and festivities once in a while. Pick your choice of holiday hiding tips from below.
1. "Smoke Break"
Even if you don't smoke, you can say you do. You can ask a friend who does smoke for an empty cigarette pack, buy a pack, or carry one lone ciggarette with you. This is a classic cop out for awkward conversation.
2. "Dire Assignment"
Even if you aren't in school, saying you have an urgent or dire assignment to do is a pretty great excuse. You can say it's for school, work, as part of a surprise for a friend, part of a pen pal exchange, for a free online class you elected to take, for a training course required by your job, to help a friend out, etc. Just run with it. If you are in school and your family won't buy that you were assigned homework over the holidays, you can say it's for a scholarship application, for a volunteer group, make up an extracurricular activity that assigned it, say it's for a fellowship, or even make up an independent study.
3. "Sick"
All you need is ambition to fake sick. Having chapped lips, red cheeks, a fake cough, and extra warm clothes helps too. You've coughed enough in your life to know how to fake a cough, use those improve skills you got from youtube and do this. You can also use blush, tinted lip balm, or your own hands to rub your cheeks and give them a rosy tint. Throw on sweats and slippers and grab an extra blanket and even a scarf and insinuate that you're very cold. A shiver and chatter your teeth a bit for extra dramatic effect.
4. "Be Helpful"
Oh, Auntie, let me do those dishes for you! Oh, I can run to the store Nana, no worries. Ohhhhh, the baby needs a nap, i'll read to her! Or insert any skill you have such as, does your sink still need fixing? Let me take a look at it! You don't have to do anything or fix it, just shut the door and pretend to be busy while you watch the new Rob & Chyna episode on your iphone. You can also volunteer to help cook or serve drinks if that can get you away from people. For example, oh, is that not cold enough? Let me go make a new tray of ice! Or you can volunteer to take out the trash and say you got caught talking to a neighbor. You got this!
5. "Urgent Phone Call"
You can always play your ringtone and pretend someone called you or just vibrate your phone and say, " Oh, I need to take this." You can make up a vague backstory about a neighbor, patient, client, coworker, boss, teacher, classmate, friend, other family member, or about a landlord or relator. Take as long as you want in your safe space away from family and if they catch you playing on facebook instead of talking, simply tell them you had to get a contact number or send someone a message to follow up.
6. "The Switcheroo"
Do you find yourself around others? If you do, do you find yourself around others that look a bit like you, sound like you, or are generally the same size as you? If you dress ambiguously enough to begin with, you can phone a friend who may or may not resemble or sound like you and if they're dressed like how you were, chances are your family may not even notice the difference! I recommend a hoodie, hat, and scarf to cover your face up a bit.
Good luck hiding from your family, hope these tips helped you avoid any awkward situations you may be over.
