Now that Halloween is over, the start of the “real holidays” is here! However with the advent of the holiday season, (did you like that pun?), many people find themselves starting to stress. So this article will deal with how to create Stress Free Holidays. To begin this discussion, here is a little word association game. Read these holiday words, and think about how they make you feel.
- Snuggling with your honey and a glass of wine in front of a crackling fire
- sharing your holiday table with good friends
- opening beautiful Christmas cards
- decorating your tree while holiday music is playing
- being surrounded by your loved ones
- receiving the perfect gift on Christmas morning
OK. Your sentiments are…….? Words like warm, cozy, loved, relaxed, happy, and content should come to mind.
Now let's continue with some more words:
- holiday rush
- office parties
- shopping on Christmas Eve
- community commitments
- school concerts
- relatives visiting
- families traveling
- finding a parking spot
- Day after Thanksgiving at the mall
- writing your Christmas cards
- closing out the fiscal year
- and of course NEW YEAR'S EVE!
YIKES! How do you feel now? If you are like most people, thoughts of rushing, stress, fatigue, concern, and unhappiness are bouncing around in your heads. That’s not exactly the picture that Norman Rockwell has portrayed over the years, huh?
Therein lies the gap between the Norman Rockwellian idea of the holidays, and the stress that many actually feel at this time of year. People want the freedom to enjoy the utopian vision of the holidays, but time and money concerns can be in direct conflict with that ideal.
However, there are ways to help change this dichotomy. By looking outside of what people currently know and do, anyone can balance time and resources more effectively at this time of year, and actually get to "enjoy" the holiday season. Wouldn't that be great?
So it’s important to think about leveraging your holiday resources...... It’s known that people can get more bang for their buck in a network scenario where they pool their resources, so why don't you do that for the holidays to relieve your stresses?
Here are some great ideas to leverage your holiday hours where you would pool your resources for holiday chores:
- Have a gift wrapping party with your friends. Everyone brings 3 rolls of paper, 2 rolls of ribbon, a pair of scissors and a roll of tape and of course the holiday presents. You provide the coffee, cookies and nametags, and everyone can make the wrapping chore a lot more fun
- Share holiday shopping with a neighbor or relative. One of you goes to the Toy Store with a combined list and the other goes to the Electronics Store to purchase all the grown up toys!
- Have your kids help with the cooking – so much of the cooking can be done in a fraction of the time, plus kids love to cook and they’ll enjoy spending time with you.
More ideas will follow in the next several weeks, so keep reading!
