5 Holiday Activities That Are Secretly Sabotaging Your Sinuses (And How to Fix It)

5 Holiday Activities That Are Secretly Sabotaging Your Sinuses (And How to Fix It)

By Nancy R.

Last Updated Nov 12. 2025

Summary: You're doing everything you can to enjoy the season. Making memories, hosting dinners, traveling to see the family...

 

but your sinuses are ruining it.

 

The truth is, some of your favorite holiday traditions are triggering your nasal passages, leading to congestion, pressure, and that stuffed up feeling keeping you up all night.

 

Here are the 5 biggest culprits, and what you can do to feel your best this upcoming holiday season.

1. Frequently Traveling

Traveling for Thanksgiving? The moment you step on a plane or into a packed terminal, you're breathing recirculated air filled with allergens, dust, and airborne irritants from hundreds of other travelers.

 

Airplane cabins have notoriously low humidity: around 10-20%, which is drier than most deserts.

 

That dry air dries out your nasal passages on contact, triggering inflammation and excess mucus production to compensate.

 

The result? You land already congested, with sinus pressure that ruins the first day or two of your trip, even though you didn't catch anything.

2. Lighting Candles

Pumpkin spice, cinnamon pine, or fresh-baked cookies. Whatever your favorite scent is, candles make your home smell like the holidays. And they also quietly irritate your sinuses at the same time.

 

Most candles release synthetic fragrances and paraffin wax particles into the air. Even if you're not allergic, your nasal passages react to these airborne irritants by producing more mucus and swelling.

 

The longer the candle burns, the worse the congestion.

 

Love candles? Switch to soy or beeswax candles with essential oils, or just crack a window while they're burning.

2. Lighting Candles

Pumpkin spice, cinnamon pine, or fresh-baked cookies.

 

Whatever your favorite scent is, candles make your home smell like the holidays. And they also quietly irritate your sinuses at the same time.

 

Most candles release synthetic fragrances and paraffin wax particles into the air. Even if you're not allergic, your nasal passages react to these airborne irritants by producing more mucus and swelling.

 

The longer the candle burns, the worse the congestion.

 

Love candles? Switch to soy or beeswax candles with essential oils, or just crack a window while they're burning.

3. Using Stored Blankets

Flannel sheets, heavy comforters, or that oversized blanket you've been waiting all year to use.

 

Here's what you didn't think about: Those cozy layers have been sitting in storage for months, collecting dust mites, mold spores, and allergens.

 

The second you pull them out and wrap yourself up, you're breathing all of it in.

 

And it's not just one night. You're sleeping under them, lounging in them, wrapping up in them every single day, which means constant exposure all winter long.

3. Using Stored Blankets

Flannel sheets. Heavy comforters. That oversized blanket you've been waiting all year to use.

 

Here's what you didn't think about: Those cozy layers have been sitting in storage for months, collecting dust mites, mold spores, and allergens.

 

The second you pull them out and wrap yourself up, you're breathing all of it in.

 

And it's not just one night. You're sleeping under them, lounging in them, wrapping up in them every single day, which means constant exposure all winter long.

4. Cranking Up the Heat

It's freezing outside, so you crank up the thermostat before bed. Makes sense, right?

 

Here's the problem: heat without humidity dries out your nasal passages overnight.

 

By morning, they're inflamed and swollen. 

 

That's not from a cold. It's because your body was breathing in that dry air all night long.

 

Bonus issue: Air systems circulate dust, pet dander, and allergens that have been sitting in your ducts since last summer.

 

Translation: Your heater is working against you.

5. Going In and Out of the Cold

Heated house → freezing car → cold parking lot → warm office. Repeat all day, every day during the holidays.

 

Every temperature swing forces your blood vessels to constrict and expand rapidly. 

 

That constant shock inflames your nasal passages, triggers excess mucus production, and leaves you congested for hours, even if you weren't stuffy to begin with.

 

The worst part? You can't avoid it. It's just a part of winter. 

 

So how do you handle the holiday season without living on nasal spray?

Why NovaFlow Should Be on Your Holiday Checklist This Year

Here's what's actually happening: when your sinuses get irritated from dry air, temperature swings, and airborne irritants, they swell up and stay inflamed as a defense mechanism.

 

Nasal sprays might clear you up temporarily, but they don't address the root cause of the inflammation. So you're stuck using them over and over, sometimes multiple times a day.

 

NovaFlow is different.

 

It uses a clinically-backed 660 nm light therapy to target the inflammation in your nasal passages so mucus can drain naturally.

 

No more medications with nasty side effects and no more suffering through the holidays.

 

Try NovaFlow risk-free for 120 days. If it doesn't work, you don't pay.

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