How To Make Christmas Less Stressful

How To Make Christmas Less Stressful with foward planning and some handy tips to help make it more enjoyable for all the family.

If all the adverts are to be believed, Christmas is a time of a happy get-together, delicious food, and time with those you love. For many families with young children, Christmas can be a very stressful time. 

You need to juggle childcare and work as well as make all the preparations for a perfect Christmas. It can be both mentally and financially stressful.

Plan Your Food In Advance

Let’s face it, a major part of Christmas revolves around food. Take some of the pressure off by filling your freezer with some things now.

Christmas party food and seasonal Christmas Coffee blend are already available.  so spread the cost and buy it early. To keep control of your budget, do your shopping online so you aren’t tempted by displays. 

If you have the time, do some batch cooking in advance and freeze it. That way, when you have a particularly busy period, you have tasty food ready at home to simply reheat.

Start a Secret Santa with Family

Does it feel like every year there are more and more presents to buy for family and loved ones? It can get very expensive. With the cost of living increase currently happening, you just might not have the budget.

This can cause a lot of worry and anxiety. Chances are, the rest of your family is feeling the same way. One way around this is to start a secret Santa. 

Pick names out of a hat and each adult only buy one present at a set budget.  Depending on the number of young kids in your family, you may want to include them in the Secret Santa or agree that kids will get presents from whoever wants to buy them.

Stick To Your Budget

Everyone’s finances are pushed this year. Create a budget and stick to it. Worrying about extra debt isn’t worth it. Though there will be a lot of additional demands on your finances, you’ll need to stay in control.

You may have to change the number of things you buy or the brands but there are a lot of sites with great advice on how to do more for less. 

If you’re tempted by sales or special offer displays, then either shop online or only go out with enough money to buy what you need, so even if you are tempted, you can’t buy anything extra that you hadn’t planned for.

Keep Off Social Media

Social media can be very triggering when you’re already stressed. Scrolling through your feed you’ll see images of picture-perfect homes and picture-perfect families. 

In the face of all this, you’ll probably feel like a failure. So the best thing to do is avoid social media for a while so that you can focus on just being you and not trying to live up to everyone’s expectations. 

You’ll be all the happier for it and it will allow you to focus on yourself and your family instead of being glued to your phone.

Don’t overschedule yourself or your children

It’s the end of the year, and you and your children need some downtime. So instead of filling every moment with planned activities, schedule some downtime too.

It will give you a chance to relax and spend time together as a family without expectations. Also, you won’t have the stress of having to get everyone ready for a day out and the expense that entails.

Don’t be afraid to say no to things if they are going to make your schedule unworkable. You don’t have to make an appearance at every event.

Look For Low-Cost Activities

Every activity aimed at children seems to have a hefty price tag attached to it. Do a little extra research and see if there are any cheaper or free activities you could do with your youngsters.

For example, many parks controlled by local councils will have lights and decorations, which make a beautiful night out with the family.

There are groups dedicated to listing these types of events so check those or ask on your local Facebook groups for ideas.

Focus On Things You Can Control

Everything doesn’t have to be perfect, and let’s face it, it hardly ever is. Stressing about things out of your control is a waste of energy.

Rather than worry about other people and situations, just take control of how you react and your actions.  Deal with things as they arise rather than live with a constant low level of anxiety.