Home Alone for the Holigays: Watch “Black Christmas” with Dani Janae

Welcome to Home for the Holigays! Although it’s been said time and time again — the holiday season looks quite a bit different in 2020. Many of us will be spending these special days solo, in the cozy comforts of our homes. In this series, a few of our writers welcome you to spend the day with them virtually, and live-tweet one of their favorite holiday films, with the hopes and wishes that it will make us all feel a little less alone.


Home Alone for the Holigays

The way things have changed this year hasn’t really altered my feelings about the holidays.

My general consensus is that I hate them. The Holiday season makes me miss my family in our happiest moments but then I get bombarded with visions of us at our worst, and that makes me really sad for my little kid self. Growing up in chaos is hard. The holidays were a point of organization and as much as I dislike this time, I still find myself implementing practices my mother instilled in me to keep “tradition” alive.

Polaroid Style photos of Dani Janae. both are close up and in the one that lays on top she wears a black and white printed shirt, red lipstick, animal print large frame glasses. There are faint animated clipart in the photo as well including a spiderweb, red lips and a hanging spider.

I make a big feast every Thanksgiving and lasagna every Christmas. This year and a couple of years previous, I have spent the holidays on my own and I like it that way. Spending time by myself is so treasured and while this quarantine has given me lots of that, I still crave it.

Whether you’re alone or with your chosen family, I hope your holiday is full of care!

Dani Janae


Black Christmas

Still from black christmas shows a masked person in all black choking a black woman from behind.

I like my Christmas like I like my women –Black! I loved the original 1970s Black Christmas, it’s truly an exercise in terror. So I was apprehensive but open to watching the remake!  I’ll be watching and live-tweeting it this Saturday, December 5 2020 from the Autostraddle Twitter at 8 PM EST! 

It’s available for streaming with an HBOMAX subscription, and also available on YouTube and Amazon Prime. Watch the trailer here!


Keeping it cute on Christmas Day

I am admittedly a bit of a clothes horse. I love spending my money on stuff I know I’ll look cute in. As a plus-size woman, it’s hard for me to find things that I can fit into that don’t fall under the fast fashion umbrella. One of the places I shop most is ELOQUII, the other is ASOS. I recently bought something from ASOS that is just begging to be worn at a holiday party. If I was still drinking I’d put it on and stumble around with one of my tits out probably.

Here’s what I imagine Christmas Day will look like for me this year:

7:00 am to 8:00 am Waking up, making coffee, and a nice big breakfast.

8:00 am to 12:00 pm Writing, reading on and off. Trying to find inspiration between the pages.

12:00 pm – 1:00 pm Lunch, watching YouTube videos of tarantulas or people eating massive amounts of food.

1:00 pm – 3:00 pm Realistically I’ll be on my phone tweeting about either being mentally ill, gay, or horny. Probably all three in one tweet.

3:00 pm – 5:00 pm I rewatch Black Christmas every year so I’ll reserve this time for that. If you haven’t watched it and you’re a grinch like me, it’s a great watch!

5:00 pm – 8:00 pm Going back to reading and writing, popping some non-alcoholic sparkling apple cider.

8:00 pm – 10:00 pm Dinner, watching more YouTube videos, maybe Facetime a friend or two.


A Holigay Mocktail

I’m sober, and I know that being sober is especially hard during the holidays, so I’m gonna drop one of my favorite mocktail recipes here.

It’s warm, a little sweet, and sexy. I love making a couple when I have the ingredients on hand and I actually made it first for an article here on Autostraddle. That’s right, it’s The Dirty Fig!

The Dirty Fig is not too sweet as the unsweetened black tea adds a tartness and depth. The fig brings an almost caramel tone and the vanilla date syrup adds a touch of sugar.


I hope this holiday season is full of what you want — whether that be love, frights, or friends (safely of course).

Happy holigays!

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danijanae

Dani Janae is a poet and writer based out of Pittsburgh, PA. When she's not writing love poems for unavailable women, she's watching horror movies, hanging with her tarantula, and eating figs. Follow Dani Janae on Twitter and on Instagram.

danijanae has written 157 articles for us.