10 Tips for Having a Stress-Free Christmas
While Christmas is supposed to be a time of love and joy, it unfortunately easily becomes a time of stress. There’s just so much to make, buy, and do, that it can quickly become overwhelming! Luckily, there are several ways that you can experience all that Christmas offers and not get stressed out. Check out these 10 Tips for Having a Stress-Free Christmas!
10 Tips for Having a Stress-Free Christmas
1. Keep Your Shopping List Reasonable
Finding, wrapping, and mailing a lot of gifts is stressful! Have a stress-free Christmas by keeping your Christmas shopping list at a reasonable size. Reduce how many gifts you plan to buy for family and friends, and limit how many toys your children can ask for.
2. Keep Your Christmas Dinner Menu Reasonable
Unless you’ve got a team of helpers and a commercial kitchen, don’t try to serve a feast for Christmas dinner! Instead, serve the amount you normally would, but add extra for guests, and a dessert or two for a holiday treat.
3. Don’t Do Too Much
It can be hard to say no to invitations for activities, especially around the holidays, but if you do too much you’ll quickly become exhausted! Try to make sure that each friend and family member gets some fun holiday time with you this year, but after that, feel free to say no to any extra parties and events. If you have a child with special needs, this can become even more essential! {Read tips for making the holidays special for special needs kids.}
4. Decorate Simply
If you want to have a stress-free Christmas, then you should make sure not to stress yourself out decorating your home! Instead of covering your home with Christmas decor, set up just a few Christmas displays in select areas. Your home can still look beautiful without you spending weeks setting everything up! {Read Child-Proof Christmas Decorations?}
5. Reduce Travel Stress
If you have to travel, then keep it as stress-free as possible. Don’t leave too close to Christmas, double-check that you have everything before you set out, and make sure the kids are busy. If you don’t really have to travel, then don’t. Stay home, and wish far away loved ones Merry Christmas over Skype.
6. Use a Budget
Going over budget is stressful at any time of year! Plan ahead of time the maximum amount you can spend this year, and then stick to it when buying Christmas decorations, food, and gifts. {Read 10 Ways to Save Money on Christmas Gifts.}
7. Leave Space for Imperfections
Don’t try to have a perfect holiday. It may be Christmastime, but life is still going on. Leave time and money for any less than ideal incidents, and if you have any kind of big plan, make sure you’ve got a backup plan in place.
8. Include Some Store-Bought with Your Homemade
If you enjoy crafting, it can be tempting to make every single gift that you give. But that can quickly become a stressful goal! The same goes for trying to make everything you serve for Christmas dinner. To save yourself some time and stress, give some store-bought gifts and serve a store-bought dessert or side.
9. Shop Early
Shopping gets stressful if you wait until the last minute. Stores run out of products, and websites require expedited shipping to send you your items on time. Have a stress-free Christmas and start your shopping as early as possible.
10. Gift Wrap When You Buy
It’s so easy to just buy a gift, then put it in the closet to wrap later. The problem is that you’ll soon have a pile of gifts that need wrapping and “later” will become “now.” If you know you’re going to have to wrap a lot of gifts this year, try wrapping them right after you buy them.
Do you usually have a stress-free Christmas?
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