Wednesday, December 19, 2012

HOLIDAY STRESS


Hello Moms

I wanted to post a few ideas I had about managing stress during the Holidays. Baking, cooking, wrapping and shopping can get to be a little to much, especially if you are buying and catering to a big family. This year I decided to relieve some of the overwhelming responsibilities. I started with food, our family will be doing a potluck gathering, if everyone brings a dish then the person having the party can focus on the main course. I find that this works pretty well, most people will bring a dish that they feel they make really well, which hopefully means better food too! Second the gifts, this year financially we would like to cut back. I love to buy Christmas presents for people, there's just something about finding that perfect gift for someone and seeing how happy they are when they know you thought about them. But, this year we changed it up every family member has picked a name from a hat. With a charity of their choice they can either donate money or time to that charity in the other persons name.  On Christmas Day everyone can hand out their envelopes with the name of the charity and how much time or money they donated  in the other persons name. I figure it was a way to get into the Christmas spirit and a good way to give a gift. But as far as the immediate family, I will still be hitting the mall, looking for the best sale.(: I hope this gives a few other people a few ideas on how to make the Holidays a little less stressful. Do you have any traditions or ideas that make the Holidays a little easier for you?


12 comments:

  1. I start early with buying, that helps A LOT! I'd like to do the name/hat thing, and have suggested it, but not enough buy-in w/the family, so we all buy everyone a gift, phew, that's why I start early, lol.

    These are good tips (love the potluck idea!), thx for sharing!

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    1. My husbands side of the family is huge! So, buying something for everyone on that side would be out of the question.(:

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  2. It is a good feeling when you find that perfect gift:)

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  3. I love the potluck idea. I'm always the one to say, "No we've got it" when asked, "Can I bring anything?" I need to stop that.

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  4. I like that this year we are rewrapping older presents for the boys to open - less stress on me and the boys will just be happy to rip open the paper. They are two :)

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  5. Our family decided to go to a potluck for our Christmas Eve and it was definitely less stressful, and everyone still had fun!

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  6. These are great tips. Thanks for sharing!

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  7. I just made my mind up several years ago not to get stressed out; I take it day by day and the closer we get to Christmas the more Christmas thingys I do with the kids and that makes for a lot of fun. This year I started the Milk Shake drive around and look at Christmas lights and listen to Christmas music... the kids LOVED it. One thing that I really like that I did this year; I bought the majority of Christmas gifts from a local shop down the street that is ran by vendors that live in my area... I wanted to do something that would benefit my local area.

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    1. Those are great ideas, thanks for sharing!

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  8. Anonymous12/20/2012

    I never got holiday stress. I love the holiday season though and work with many clients suffering from a tremendous amount of stress as a result of overdoing and over expecting. I wish people didn't take it all so seriously and simplify so they could enjoy the lights, good food, and reason for the season.

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  9. Just swinging over to day hi. It's been awhile. :)

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  10. I know the Holidays kinda did me in for awhile. Hoping to get back into the swing of things, trying to update my FB page, so I guess that will be my priority for a little bit. Hope all is well with you.(:

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