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Managing child contact this Christmas as a single parent

28/10/2025

We’ve compiled some ideas to help you manage child contact during the 2025 festive season.

Christmas can be a lot more relaxed with a bit of planning around child contact. Here are some ideas to help you get started this year.

See more advice and tips about support during the holidays. This information could be especially useful if you have a child with an eating difficulty or disorder, if you are looking after someone who has a disability, if you have just separated or been bereaved, or if you will be alone for the festive period.

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Childcare and contact arrangements

If you know in advance that you are going to need to make childcare arrangements over Christmas, try to plan as far in advance as you can.

Try and agree a schedule as part of this planning if your child will be spending time with their other parent over the holidays. Here are a few tips to plan out your childcare and contact arrangements.

  • If your child is old enough to express their views, you could encourage them to open up about how they feel and how they would like to spend their holidays
  • If you are worried about the safety of your child when they are with their other parent, or that they might not be returned after their visit, we would recommend that you look into specialist advice. We have a page which deals with concerns about your child’s safety during contact
  • If you are concerned about your child being kept in another country contact a service like  Reunite International  for advice
  • If your childcare costs increase a lot during the holidays you may be entitled to extra working tax or universal credit. Contact  HMRC  report this change for tax credits or, if you get universal credit, report it on your online account
  • If you don’t have any childcare, you could meet up with friends and go to the park or a free local spot such as a museum or library together
  • It’s important to make time to see other adults over the holidays. Have a day out  or visit each other so that you can have some adult conversation while the kids play
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Self-care

Some parents have told us that they feel lonely and miss their children a lot during the time they’re with other family. Sometimes this can mean that they’re not able to relax and enjoy the time to themselves.

This is understandable, especially if this is the first Christmas you’ve been separated.

Check out ‘My Life and Me’, our online single parent wellbeing resource. It has lots of useful tips and support for self-care, including how to cope with feeling anxious or lonely.

  • You might want to enjoy the time at home watching a film, relaxing in the bath, or meeting up with friends to distract yourself
  • You might want to get dressed up for Christmas, or you might prefer to have a relaxed pyjama day. It’s up to how you feel!
  • You might want to find new people to talk to or spend time with, restart an old hobby, or learn something new. There are websites such as  meetup.com  where you can search for groups in your area with similar interests
  • You can also chat online with other parents on our Forum, or use chat rooms such as  Netmums  or  Mumsnet
  • If you can’t be with the people you would like to be with this Christmas you might want to have a chat, drink, quiz or some fun with them via video chat

Different people find different things work best for them and their family – you’re the expert of yourself. Most importantly, try to relax and enjoy it.

Our single parent forum connects you with others in a similar situation to you

You can connect online with other single parents on our Forum. Ask questions and have other single parents reply with things they have found useful, or simply read through previously asked questions from others in similar situations.
It's a great way to be part of a community which cares for and values each other's advice and experiences.
Our Advisors monitor the forum and try to help answer questions between 9:30am and 4pm Monday to Friday.

Try our single parent forum
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One Parent Families Scotland Christmas opening hours

Our Helpline will be closed from 2pm on Christmas Eve and will reopen on the 29 and 30 December from 10am until 2pm. After this, we will be reopening as usual at 9:30am on Monday 5 January 2026.

We will also be closing our face to face services for Christmas and re-opening them after the Christmas break in January 2026. The re-opening dates for individual services are to be confirmed, but we will keep our pages updated.

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If you need immediate help over Christmas

  • For an emergency call 999
  • We have advice for those in a crisis
  • For health advice when your GP  and  dentist is closed call  NHS 24 on 111
  • For personal crisis support, call the Samaritans  helpline on 116 123
  • If you are feeling low or depressed call  Breathing Space  on 0800 83 85 87
  • If you are, or have been, affected by domestic abuse, call  the Domestic abuse and forced marriage helpline on  0800 027 1234  or find your nearest Women’s Aid service
  • For housing issues, contact  Shelter  on 0808 800 4444 or  webchat
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