The holidays are a joyous time of year. You get to spend time with family and share laughs. However, the lead up to the actual holiday — will all of the planning, shopping, and preparation–can take away from its majesty.
Listed here are a few tips to make your holidays special and stress-free.
Plan Early
Much of the stress that comes with the holiday season is due to last-minute tasks. The good news is that you can take the stress out of the equation if you make decisions and plan early. When it comes to family members that live out of state or the country, you can send them personalized ecards for Christmas.
Take Turns Playing Hostess
Your house is the highlight of the holiday season for your immediate family. Unfortunately, this means that you have all the work squarely on your shoulders. Accommodating 15 to 20 people (or more!) for Christmas takes a lot of time and money for food, gifts, and decorating.
Why not change things up and start a new family tradition of alternating homes each season? If that isn’t an option due to the size needed or location, then ask family members to contribute their favorite dish or dessert. Then at least you’ll have less to prepare and more time to actually enjoy the family gathering.
Limit the Gifts
Many people go hog wild over the holidays, spending much more than they can afford. And, then once the festivities end, they are in debt. Instead of cleaning out your pockets, create a system that a number of large families adopt and pick names. If you want, the adults can buy a gift for all of the children and draw names for the adults. Or, you can use the system for your entire family, including the kids, to make it more affordable.
Over Dressing
You’ve seen the pictures of those gorgeous homes with beautiful holiday decorations. However, what you didn’t know is that most of these families had the help of many people to produce the final product. Let’s face it, you work full time, have children to raise, maintain a home, and run errands in your free time. So trying to create an award-winning display is just setting you up for disaster and stress overload.
Thankfully, you can create a lovely holiday environment with minimal effort and that fits within your budget. For instance, let your children make colorful chains from paper or string popcorn and then drape it around the tree. Not only will you feel relief, but you’ll create long-lasting fun memories.
The Wish List
It seems every time you watch television there’s another commercial of a new product that your kids are convinced they just have to have. Before you know it, your children hand you a Christmas list filled with dozens of items. And, as you start adding the cost for each, you realize that each child has a list of wishes that total well over $500.00. This is insanity! Christmas is not about filling a tree with a gazillion gifts. Have a talk with your children and explain that Santa has millions of children to give gifts to and that they must select only 3 to 4 items from the list that they really want and at least one toy that helps develop their young minds.
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