Holiday stress-reducing tips
It is a good thing that the holidays only come once a year. If it was more often, some people might faint from the stress. Some folks are on the go fromBlack Friday(and some even earlier) clear up until Christmas. It is not much fun fighting pushy shoppers in the stores, fighting motorists with parking lot rage (similar to road rage) for a parking space or feeling the pressure to find the perfect gift.
There isreliefin sight, weary friends, and it comes in the form of learning how to plan, organize and enjoy the holiday season. The simple fact is some people make the holiday season harder than it has to be.
Organize and prioritize
Does the holiday season seem to sneak up on you and smack you on the back of the head? If this seems to happen every year, then it is time to start organizing and prioritizing your holiday activities. It is not that you want to be saddled with a schedule that has to be followed to the letter. The deal is that you need to eliminate some of the pressure from everything piling up on you at once.
Sit down with a pen and piece of paper. Write down everything you and your loved ones do for the holidays. Now assign each task like shopping, making treats and decorating a week to get done. For example: the first week in December you decorate and shop. The second week you make treats and send out Christmas cards. The third week is all about the wrapping and get togethers. Then after you have everything prioritized, plan out how these activities are going to get done efficiently and joyously. Yes, if the activities are not any fun, then why bother? You can choose to make the activities a little more fun by being organized and less stressed.
Enlist help
Even if you are one of those people who likes to do everything yourself, to make sure it gets done right, now is the time to change that. When you try and tackle holiday tasks alone, you are only setting yourself up for stress, anxiety and a lousy time.
Ask friends and family members to help with the holiday festivities. The tasks will get done faster and you might just end up having more fun at the same time. Delegating tasks among yourself and other people may also help them feel like they are a part of the holiday season. Sometimes when people decide to do everything on their own, that ends up almost alienating loved ones from part of what the season is about: family.
Stock supplies
One of the best ways to eliminate some stress from the holidays is to make sure you have everything you need on hand. There is nothing worse than being in the middle of making your famous cookies and realizing you are missing ingredients! The same goes for wrapping gifts, making gift baskets and Christmas dinner.
It is always a good idea to keep a running tab of things you need. The best way to do this is to write items down on your shopping list as soon as you run out. This way you can pick up everything in one trip instead making several unnecessary ones.
Shop early
One of the biggest mistakes some people make is waiting too long to shop for gifts. They either wait for Black Friday and fight the throngs of shoppers fighting over some admittedly awesome deals or they wait until the week before Christmas and hope to find something good on the bare shelves at the stores. Either way, you end up stressed, nerves frazzled and not feeling the holiday spirit any more. Avoid these scenarios by starting your gift shopping early.
Start in March or July or the day after Christmas (great clearance deals). The trick is to do your shopping off and on throughout the year. If you do not want to shop throughout the year, then start your shopping before the mainstream does on Black Friday. Face facts, stores have sales throughout the whole year! Store the gifts in black lawn and leaf trash bags in a closet no one uses. The reason for the black bags is that they make a a good disguise. Who wants to look in a bag of blankets or potential junk? If you cannot store gifts all year, then find a place for storage like a friend or family member's basement or attic.
Wrapping/decorating party
The holiday season is the time for parties and gatherings, right? So why not have a decorating party when it is time to turn your home into a winter wonderland? You can put on some festive music, have some cookies and hot chocolate and a lot of fun with loved ones. Who knows, putting up those outdoor decorations could lead to a grand snowball fight or the creation of the best snowman ever!
A gift wrapping party can be loads of fun because you can have at least two, if not more. Arrange some snacks and music and invite your friends over (have them bring their gifts to wrap too) and you can wrap the gifts you have for your family. If you have gifts for your friends, then wrap those with your family. The point is to make these tasks fun instead letting them become tedious.
There is one thing that can cause stress and wear a person down during the holidays and that is overdoing it. When you are constantly on the go doing this or that for the holidays, sometimes you end up missing out on the beauty of the holidays. The holiday season has a special kind of magic that people miss out on because they are too busy being cranky and stressed out.
How about toning it down and having less flash and more fun? Try hosting more get togethers that are about games, movies and quality time rather than flashy decor and expensive food. Serve up some coffee/hot tea/cocoa and some cookies and enjoy the true spirit of the holidays.
