Right around this time in 1966 I had mess duty at USMC Camp Pendleton, but had a day or two off for the holiday, so I took the Greyhound up to L.A. -- where I promptly broke out in welts and a fever, so I bussed it back to CamPen on Christmas Eve and stopped at the base hospital.
I was quickly diagnosed with Rubella (German Measles) and put into an isolation ward....woke up Christmas morning with instructions from the Squid nurses who ran the place to get up and change the sheets on my hospital 'rack', and then crawl back into bed.....
Fortunately, I was outta there and re-infecting Camp Pendleton within a few days.....(I'd been in direct contact with salad fixings right before the breakout, and went right back to the same billet).
I had just arrived from Fort Gordon and was assigned to 1st Signal Group. As it was the day before Christmas and a blizzard was expected, I was sent off to the BOQ and told to check in after the long weekend. I spent Christmas alone, alternately grabbing a bite from a bucket of KFC and drinking a Christmas libation from a bottle of JD. It was pretty bad.
One good note. Six months later, both Group and the 58th Signal Battalion, to which I had been assigned, got new commanding officers. When I told my story to my new battalion CO, he was furious that I had been abandoned and not permitted to participate in the various Christmas functions typical for army officers. He set up a buddy system so that something like this would never happen again under his command.
In the end, it worked out for the best.