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This wonderful time of the year has come time to celebrate Christmas and our other favorite winter holidays. This time of the year is when people spend the most time with relatives. As much as we love our family, much of our stress during this time can be due to them along with the actual actions we feel that we must perform.
Holiday stress can be of two types: preparation stress and familial stress. Let’s start with the preparation stress. What is the perfect holiday? If you know what it is, please give me a call. Most people are still in search of it.
Begin to deal with holiday stress by telling yourself that the perfect holiday is the stuff of imagination. Norman Rockwell painted some great scenes, but they could have been from his memory or his imagination. A perfect holiday is one where everyone survives, not leaves happy.
Don’t spend too much time on the preparations. Murphy’s Law states that if something will go wrong it will happen over the holidays. Fixing that pumpkin pie from scratch only to find out that everyone wants grandma’s sweet potato pie won’t make you very happy. Trying to shove it down their throats won’t do much for their attitude either.
Enlist the aid of other family members so that all of the prep work doesn’t fall on you. Have a game plan. Decide whose house to have dinner at and rotate each holiday. Also determine if the relatives will board in a hotel or sleep at your place.
Familial stress occurs when difficult relatives come to visit or you visit them. Some people are just picky. They want everything just so or they are not satisfied. Before responding to snide comments about your food or the state of your home, take a deep breath. The person with the problem is your relative and not you.
During holiday time we take every remark personally. Any delays are a deliberate attempt by the powers that be to ruin our fun. Neither is true and stress sets in when we begin to believe that they are. If you are the kind of person who is easily offended, let another family member host the holiday dinner.
Another way to fend of stress at the holiday season is to open the floor for suggestions. When people are complaining about food, accommodations, and activities, ask them to offer alternatives to your ideas. We all make plans that we think will satisfy others, but that doesn’t always happen.
Holidays are about family time and remembering why we are truly thankful. It is hard to think about the good times when we are stressed out of our minds. Turn down the stress by letting go of preconceived notions of the perfect holiday.
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Thank goodness, I’m not the cook for Christmast. That’s just Joe’s job. And thank goodness we have a small family. True though believe some people are just not happy and always find negative remarks to say. I try not to let them affect me, weather it be during the holidays or not. This was a great post, lots of great suggestions and tips.
http://thejoereview.com/
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To reduce stress in our family we have all decided that not getting gifts this holiday would be the best option. Instead we are going to do service for others. We are all in on this and it is gonna be a great Christmas.
It is holiday time that all people enjoy the Christmas eve with their friends and family..Thanks for sharing..
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