Stress-free Christmas Tips

Here are more stress-free Christmas tips from an article by Sherrie Le Mausseur*. If you missed the first part of this article, you can read it here, "How to have a Stress-free Christmas."

Part II for more stress-free Christmas tips.

Learn To Say No
Don't allow requests from outside your family to push you to the breaking point. Recognize your limitations and stick to them. Don't feel bad about saying no; instead realize you're doing yourself and your family a favor by not overextending yourself.

Forget About the Joneses
So what if all your friends homes look like holiday wonderlands with handcrafted ornaments and gingerbread baking in the oven. Don't feeling guilty about what you could be doing, concentrate instead on your children and what you enjoy doing together.

Keep Social Engagements to a Minimum
The holidays are a family time and shoehorning in too many activities may get in the way of a happy and relaxed experience. Who says you have to accept every invitation that comes your way? Sit down with your family and make a priority list of all your annual holiday obligations. Which ones do you truly enjoy and which ones can you do without?

Remember Christmas is a season, not a one-day blitz. Pull out the calendar and start prioritizing. As the invitations come in check to see if you've left time for quiet evenings at home and spontaneous family activity.

Let Go Of Childhood Traditions That Aren't Enjoyed
Just because you have fond childhood memories of Christmases past doesn't mean your spouse and children will share the same "warm fuzzy" over the tradition. You may have enjoyed trekking out to the far reaches of your farm in the search of the perfect Christmas tree or you may have dreaded the activity because it was usually damn cold and your dad always insisted on cutting down only "Charlie Brown" trees.

Either way, you shouldn't encourage reluctant family members to continue a tradition just because it was something you have always done. Often we let our past holiday memories dictate how our family should celebrate the holidays.

Spending a family night together doing absolutely nothing but cuddling on the couch and watching a holiday movie can be the perfect antidote to holiday madness.

*Sherrie Le Masurier is a mother of two and co-owner of www.familysanitysavers.com and www.decorating-kids-rooms.net

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