How to Limit Holiday Stress and Enjoy Christmas Properly

How to Limit Holiday Stress and Enjoy Christmas Properly This Year

People feel very different about Christmas and the same person can both love the holiday season and get quite stressed and worried about it. I mainly enjoy it but it depends on how we’re celebrating and I do try my best to limit any stress triggers to make Christmas as enjoyable as possible. Read on for my best best tips for how to limit holiday stress.

If you tend to find Christmas or Christmas Day stressful, these tips and the ones below might be useful for you:

Do What Makes You Happy

It’s time to stop just thinking about what other people want. Instead, focus on what you want. For example, if you love hosting Christmas, then go for it. Be the hostess with the mostess. Have a super fancy tree and the best Christmas light installation to impress your guests. If that’s really not your thing, work something else out. For instance, you could visit other family members’ homes for Christmas. Or simply celebrate at home with you own family unit. If you go with what you prefer, then you’ll be happier instantly.

Minimalist Gift Giving

Limit the amount of gifts that you buy and who you buy for. My husband and I stopped buying each other Christmas presents a few years ago. Over the past couple of years, my sisters, mum and I have not bought for each other either. Now, we only buy gifts for the kids instead. By doing this, we have take so much stress out of the festive period. Children are much easier to buy gifts for!

I also try to keep our kids’ gifts quite minimalist and buy a few good items rather than lots and lots of gifts that will quickly be forgotten. The gift motto “Something they want, something they need, something to wear, something to read” can be very useful if you’re trying to be more selective with gifts for you children.

Make It Easy for Yourself

If you’re hosting or cooking for your own family, make it easy for yourself and do what you can in advance to prepare for the Christmas lunch. Lots of the veg can be prepared the night before and there’s no shame in buying things that are pre-prepared whether that’s shop bought cranberry sauce, Christmas cake or already peeled and chopped vegetables. Time is precious and lack of time causes stress. Oh, and if you’ve been cooking all morning, get the rest of the family to help out and do the tidying up and the dishes to let you relax a bit!

Remember What’s Important to You

What’s important about Christmas to you? Make sure you include any routines or things that are precious to you and you will enjoy the day more. For as long as I can remember, I’ve spent the morning on Christmas preparing food and being busy in general so in the afternoon, I love to sneak off for a quick nap and then enjoy a Baileys coffee when I’m back up. My daughters’ step nana loved having a G&T and listening to music in the kitchen as she prepared Christmas lunch — we all have our little things that are part of our own traditions so make sure you include yours.

Conclusion: Limit Holiday Stress

As you can see, there are simple ways to reduce stress over the festive period. It all starts with looking at what’s really important to you and your family. Then, you need to set boundaries and make plans for how to simplify the celebrations. This way, you’ll be able to focus on properly enjoying Christmas with your family.

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