Holiday stress: The state of being overwhelmed by the sudden onslaught of activities and errands during the period beginning November 1 and ending January 1.
If you care about healthy living, then you need to reduce your stress level. And in our material-driven society today, stress during the holidays has become so commonplace that fewer and fewer people truly enjoy the days between Thanksgiving and New Year’s Day. Besides your regular duties and activities, you may be expected to send out cards, prepare fancy meals, buy gifts, show up at every party, and/or bake goodies (or spend your hard-earned money in the grocery store bakery department).
If you are a parent with children under the age of eighteen, life is all the more complicated during those two months. Chauffering, classroom-party volunteering, and trying to figure out how to balance your Christmas budget against all the things your kids are asking for threaten to bring you to the brink of your sanity.
And, may I say, if you are striving to live as natural and simple a life as possible, all these expectations most certainly drive you out of your tree. Is there not a way, you ask yourself, to have fun over the holidays without turning those days into Materialism Madness?
If you’re looking for ways to reduce holiday stress for both you and your family, the following five tips will help you enormously.
Tip #1: Ditch the Christmas card tradition
So you’re mother’s cousin’s niece will get offended if you stop sending her a paper card every year. Even though you met her only once fifteen years ago and haven’t talked to her since. So what?
Two years ago I decided to stop playing the Christmas card game. Instead, I began sending a monthly family e-newsletter to friends and family. I figured it would be more meaningful than sending the same old Nativity picture or cheesy drawing of Santa, as everyone would get to hear what we were up to on a monthly basis.
I think I figured correctly, as several people on my newsletter list have told me that they enjoy hearing our regular family updates.
If you’re not quite ready to completely stop sending Christmas cards, save yourself time and money and send out e-cards.
Tip #2: Limit party-going
If various members of your family often get invited to two or more Christmas parties per year, make a rule that limits each member to one party each. The exception is if someone on your block has a party, which eliminates any commuting. But in that case, make sure all of your children can attend so you don’t end up refereeing the “it’s not fair” argument.
Tip #3: Simplify gift-giving
Here are some ideas on how to do that:
- Limit gift-giving to nuclear family members only, or convince your material-minded extended family members to draw names so that each person has to buy only one gift for the person whose name they drew. I know that is hard to do in some families. But you never know; your cousins may loathe trying to figure out your annual gift just as much as you despise figuring out theirs.
- For your kids, use the Jesus gift rule: “Jesus received three presents; so you will receive three presents.” You as parents can decide to get each other one to three gifts, or none at all. While you’re at it, be “green” and order from online stores that sell only fair-trade items, such as Gifts With Humanity or Craftsbury Kids.
- Pool the money you would have spent on gifts and use it to “buy” an extra-special vacation. Older kids would love to help figure out where to go and what to do. If you homeschool (or even if you don’t), you could turn this idea into a budgeting project.
Tip #4: Save the sweets.
I’m about to get really heretical now.
Don’t bake any special cookies. Or, if that is an important part of your holiday tradition, bake one batch every couple of weeks with your children’s assistance (kids over the age of eight may even be able to whip up a batch of sugar cookies by themselves).
Believe me, your kids will be exposed to way more sweets than you want them to in that short period of time known as “the holidays.” If you decide to put up your feet and read a good book instead of knocking yourself out to prepare foods that will probably just depress everyone’s immune system anyway take away time and energy from your already too-busy life, you will definitely reduce the amount of holiday stress you experience.
Tip #5: Don’t travel
For the first time in my whole life, last Christmas I did not return to Minnesota–where my mom and siblings live–to celebrate. Neither did we visit to any of my husband’s relatives in Louisiana. And we agreed that it was the most relaxing Christmas we’d ever had.
Yes, your in-laws might get bent out of shape. Patiently explain that you want your holidays to be low-key, and to establish unique family traditions with your own children, and that you would be happy to visit another time of year.
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Remember that finances are often a huge source of stress to families. Get yours under control with my low-investment/huge-return ebook, Weird Finances: How to go from broke to financially independent in ten years.
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Got any more ideas on how to make the holidays a more relaxing time of the year? Share them below!
