Want To Lessen Your Holiday Stress?
Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree
The Holidays are here! Everyone LOVES the Holidays! Family and friends, parties, traveling, eating, shopping, wrapping, baking . . . where does it end?
The best thing you can do to enjoy the Holidays rather than stressing about them is to understand and accept that it will not be PERFECT. No matter how hard you try, it just won’t happen. And if you get even close, you will be totally exhausted!
So do some planning. Plan your shopping time. Plan your decorating time. Plan your cooking and baking time. Pan to get done what you can and then just enjoy. But most of all, plan the time you spend with your family and friends. That is a lot of what this season is all about.
You must also learn to say NO.
Do you need to bake a passel of cookies? For the cookie exchange – probably. For your kid’s school – NO.
Do you need to experiment with new recipes? NO – this is not the time of year to do that. You can be too disappointed and waste a lot of time.
Do you need to use elaborate wrappings for your presents? For your mother-in-law – Maybe. For your kids – NO. Kids usually tear through things to quickly to even care. For ease, use the gift bags – easy to wrap – easy to open – can be saved for next year.
Do you need to send Christmas cards to EVERYONE you know? NO! Send them to your closest friends and family. Tell everyone else you are being green by not using paper and stamps.
Do you need to attend EVERY party and gathering that comes along? NO! Need an excuse? This is the time of year I spend extra time with my family.
Do you get the idea? Plan. Say NO. Take time for yourself, your family, your friends. Enjoy the season for what it really is, not for what everyone tells you it should be.
Related articles
- Christmas noms! (thinkingsofalili.blogspot.com)
- Once Upon a Cookie (wineclass.net)
- Day 7 – The 12 Days of Christmas Cookies (bookingmama.blogspot.com)
![Reblog this post [with Zemanta]](http://img.zemanta.com/reblog_e.png?x-id=8dda3fa2-5156-4b11-9999-4c855e817b97)
No related posts.
Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.
thanks for that
I grew up with everything focused on Christmas Eve, we would bring in and decorate the Christmas Tree on Christmas Eve, go to Christmas Sauna in the evening, and afterwards open the presents. No bedtime either, but I would generally fall asleep playing before morning came. Christmas Day was spent performing not a heck of a great deal, eating what was leftover from Christmas Eve dinner, having fun with new toys and such things. Now that we have our own kids, our traditions are a mish-mash of nordic, german and north american traditions. The children put their shoes out on the windowsill during nights leading to Christmas, and Santa fills them with candy. Christmas Eve is family christmas time, so we do presents at my inlaws with my wife’s family. Christmas morning is santa present time. Christmas dinner is moved to Christmas Day.