No matter how much we may adore the holiday season, it is difficult to get away from the fact that the holidays can be an extremely stressful time. With a bit of pre-planning, you can reduce the stress level of many of the activities that come along with the period between Thanksgiving and the beginning of a new year.
The problem of holiday stress may not exist if we, as adults, could look at the holidays through the eyes we used as children. Everything surrounding this time of year would be delightful and stress wouldn't even exist! Unfortunately, no one has discovered how to do that yet, so we have to look for ways to lessen the stress on our own. No matter what your lifestyle, there will be ways to reduce the tension levels that come along with the holidays. Hopefully, adopting a few or all of these tips will offer you a much calmer holiday.
1. Remember that not everything has to be perfect! If ordering a cake for Christmas dinner from a bakery will save you a few hours in which you can do something else, by all means, order the cake. If it is possible within your budget, allow a cleaning person or crew to come in this one time a year and clean the house while you are tending to matters that will need some of your personal attention. It is important to remember that a holiday celebration can still be beautiful and memorable if you don't end up doing all of the difficult holiday chores by yourself.
2. Just the thought of holiday shopping and the endless checkout lines that come with it is enough to give many people an exceedingly stressed-out feeling. The thing to remember here is that the longer gift shopping is procrastinated, the more crowded the stores will become and the longer the lines will get. One way to avoid this is to do as much of your shopping as possible via the internet or from print catalogs.
3. Another way to avoid some of the stress of holiday shopping is to keep an eye open for gifts throughout the year. Things like bestselling books and top-of-the-charts CDs will often be changing by the holidays, but many gifts can be bought any time throughout the year. Things like wallets, scarves, stationery, housewares, and many other things can be bought at any time. Another advantage to this method is that you, as the shopper, will be able to find sales throughout the year, such as white sales.
4. Reduce the stress of decorating by deciding not to get it all completed in one day. If you would prefer to get it finished all at once, perhaps you could order a couple of pizzas and have a few family members stop by for a decorating party. Anything that has a family tradition attached to it, (i.e. placing the star atop the tree by the youngest family member) simply announce that those things will be done by your family later.
5. Many times stress is caused by the holiday baking that seems to be a necessity in the minds of many families. Instead of spending a few days baking cookies, why not have a neighborhood or friends' group cookie exchange? You will not be baking half a dozen different kinds of cookies because each participating person bakes only one kind of cookie, but enough of that one kind to trade with the other families. When it's time for trading day, the cookies are traded by the dozen and each family goes home with many different kinds of cookies.
6. Another idea that will help reduce the stress of baking for the holidays is to ask each member of your family for their favorite kind of Christmas cookie. When it comes time to do the baking, the person choosing the cookie will become the helper for that baking job. This way all of the baking chores will not be falling to just one person.
7. One of the best ways to make the holidays less stressful is to remember to take some pampering time for yourself. Don't worry about things that have not been finished yet, or things you should be doing instead. Realize that time to relax is the very thing that is going to help your holiday season be less stressful.
8. Enjoy the season. There is so much more to it than work, baking, and entertaining. Play a CD of carols and sing along. Rent a couple of Christmas classic movies. Read some Christmas stories to your children or take a walk or drive with your spouse or a friend to see the lights and decorations around town.
9. Entertaining can be one of the most stressful events of the holiday season. Discover ways to take some of the pressure off of your shoulders if you need to do some entertaining. Combine groups if you were planning to have a few smaller gatherings, or decide to have the event catered or possibly even turn it into a pot luck gathering. Not having to do all the cooking on your own will be a huge stress lifted from you and you will be able to use that saved time in some other constructive way.
10. Buy your holiday cards as soon as they are available on the store shelves. Attach one of your return labels right away and then get a few of them signed and addressed whenever you have a few extra minutes. Things like this are often put out in September, but no later than October, so by the time the holiday rush begins, your cards will be addressed and signed. Do not seal the envelopes early, however. This will allow you to jot some personal thoughts into the card right before mailing.
