Have Less Stressful and Less Expensive Holiday Season

No matter how much you love the holidays or how well you’ve planned, if you’re like most people you’ll find yourself frazzled at times. You may find yourself searching for the perfect gift, trying to create an impressive dinner for guests or scrambling to put up holiday decorations.  

The best gift you can give yourself this season is to take time to plan your holidays. Spend some time thinking about what you really want, and creating a plan for how you want to spend your time, energy, and money. 

Here are some questions to ask yourself and those you share the holidays with: 

• What are your best holiday memories?
• What do you like most about the holidays?
• What do you like the least?
• What’s the one thing you would most like to do this holiday season?
• What’s the one thing you don’t want to do this holiday season?
• How can I make the holidays less stressful?
• How can I spend less yet enjoy the holidays?

You probably can’t remember the majority of the gifts you gave or received as children. But you probably have holiday memories around events or family times that you treasure. It’s never too late to create traditions your family can enjoy year after year. You may even want to explore your family’s ethnic heritage to find new holiday traditions you can incorporate into your celebration. An Internet search can yield a lot of information on holiday traditions. Another good source is your local library where you may want to check out books on traditions such as The Book of New Family Traditions: How to Create Great Rituals for Holidays & Everyday’s by Meg Cox.

With some open discussion and planning, you should be able to come up with some positive strategies. Eliminating just one item from your “to do” list can be a great start.