65 ways to relax at Christmas
- Thread starter luludou
- Start date
Luludou -- thank you for the great link!!!
Great topic! It is good to be creative and to share ideas - when dealing with Christmas stress.
It was extremely stressful for me to spend Christmas with my late inlaws. My own relatives lived across the country, and celebrated together. My husband is an only child -- and with the expense of transporting our family of 5 across the country for Christmas - we stayed home and the inlaws came to stay with us.
I used to call it "Putting On The Christmas Circus". I would schedule wonderful holiday events for the 5 - 7 days of the visit. (The inlaws were not the kind to be pleasant and entertain themselves or to help. Their "help" consisted of intense criticism of everything you did. Helpful criticism. in their opinion.) So - we would take the children to see Santa. We would drive around to see the lights. We would have people the in-laws knew come to dinner at our house. On and on the circus would go.
On Christmas Day - the inlaws would never consider having dinner out. (Don't you know that restaurants are dirty and can make you sick? NEVER eat in one.) So -- in order to maintain my own sanity, every Christmas I would have to go off for an hour or so "to visit a friend who is alone". (The inlaws were only too happy to see me go.)
I would have a new paperback novel hidden in the trunk of the car. I would drive to the local supermarket parking lot. (Store closed on Christmas.) I would lock the car doors and happily read for an hour. When my nerves had quieted, I would drive back home.
Stress busters can be great!
Great topic! It is good to be creative and to share ideas - when dealing with Christmas stress.
It was extremely stressful for me to spend Christmas with my late inlaws. My own relatives lived across the country, and celebrated together. My husband is an only child -- and with the expense of transporting our family of 5 across the country for Christmas - we stayed home and the inlaws came to stay with us.
I used to call it "Putting On The Christmas Circus". I would schedule wonderful holiday events for the 5 - 7 days of the visit. (The inlaws were not the kind to be pleasant and entertain themselves or to help. Their "help" consisted of intense criticism of everything you did. Helpful criticism. in their opinion.) So - we would take the children to see Santa. We would drive around to see the lights. We would have people the in-laws knew come to dinner at our house. On and on the circus would go.
On Christmas Day - the inlaws would never consider having dinner out. (Don't you know that restaurants are dirty and can make you sick? NEVER eat in one.) So -- in order to maintain my own sanity, every Christmas I would have to go off for an hour or so "to visit a friend who is alone". (The inlaws were only too happy to see me go.)
I would have a new paperback novel hidden in the trunk of the car. I would drive to the local supermarket parking lot. (Store closed on Christmas.) I would lock the car doors and happily read for an hour. When my nerves had quieted, I would drive back home.
Stress busters can be great!
I walk my dog on Christmas day. After the gifts are done, and before the family/ friends arrive for dinner - just me, snow and dog 
In my family we already talk about celebrating christmas. The main idea is that my siblings and my father will visit my hubby and me at christmas eve.
As I am expecting (and still will be at christmas) I don't want to have so much stress.
So far I have agreed with the main idea, BUT only on condition that EVERYONE who wants to celebrate with us has to help. Either with cooking or finish up decoration or whatever.
Let's see how this will work...
Chilli
As I am expecting (and still will be at christmas) I don't want to have so much stress.
So far I have agreed with the main idea, BUT only on condition that EVERYONE who wants to celebrate with us has to help. Either with cooking or finish up decoration or whatever.
Let's see how this will work...
Chilli
HHhmmmm...... last year, we didn't get too far with this thread....... I wonder if we discovered some ways to relax at Christmas and just didn't write them here?
Looking back.... my adult children all instituted ways for us to minimize stress at Christmas. Our oldest son checks with us for our latest passionate interests -- and sends gift cards for our favorite places. (He orders them online and the stores mail them to us.) It is a very luxurious feeling to have that gift card..... and wait for the perfect time to use it - during the year!
Our youngest son asked that we use disposable plates and cutlery, and NOT set an elaborate table for holiday meals. A lovely flower arrangement and tablecloth was fine. Candles were fine. NO fancy serving dishes, etc.
Our daughter asked that we serve purchased food. (Precooked, gourmet items, restaurant take-out.) She ALWAYS does this for holiday meals herself!
This arrangement might not work for everyone. But, because we live so close to two of the children's families, and exchange frequent visits with the third -- we eat many, many, many meals together during the year. Meals that I cook and serve using real dishes & cutlery. So -- it is a novel treat to use holiday paper plates, napkins, etc. that are disposable.
This has cut the amount of work for me tremendously ---- and reduced the stress tremendously.
How about you? Did you find anything that reduced your level of stress for Christmas 2009?
Looking back.... my adult children all instituted ways for us to minimize stress at Christmas. Our oldest son checks with us for our latest passionate interests -- and sends gift cards for our favorite places. (He orders them online and the stores mail them to us.) It is a very luxurious feeling to have that gift card..... and wait for the perfect time to use it - during the year!
Our youngest son asked that we use disposable plates and cutlery, and NOT set an elaborate table for holiday meals. A lovely flower arrangement and tablecloth was fine. Candles were fine. NO fancy serving dishes, etc.
Our daughter asked that we serve purchased food. (Precooked, gourmet items, restaurant take-out.) She ALWAYS does this for holiday meals herself!
This arrangement might not work for everyone. But, because we live so close to two of the children's families, and exchange frequent visits with the third -- we eat many, many, many meals together during the year. Meals that I cook and serve using real dishes & cutlery. So -- it is a novel treat to use holiday paper plates, napkins, etc. that are disposable.
This has cut the amount of work for me tremendously ---- and reduced the stress tremendously.
How about you? Did you find anything that reduced your level of stress for Christmas 2009?
Great ideas, love the link. Some of these ideas need be on our list of "Celebrate Me"
activities.
activities.
That list is truly inspiring, I think that I'm going to print it out and include it in my Christmas notebook. If you scroll to the bottom of the page, you'll see more articles in the same vein. I've just spent half an hour browsing articles in that theme! Here's a question about one of the suggestions however: what simple, tasteful gift would you choose for ALL the fellow adults on your list? I love token gifts that are the sort of thing that everyone would appreciate, but that stymies me and I'm not sure it would fly in my family. Every Christmas is a potlach here, and that's not the stressful part, so I see no need to change it. (I do pull a Scrooge and give a turkey or a turkey gift certificate from Shady Brook Farms to each household! That's simple, taste-ful gift, I suppose.)
My favorite Christmas season de-stressor is sitting by the fireside with my favorite childish indulgences: hot chocolate, cookies, and my comic books. Pretty much all my anti-stress habits include sitting around and reading.
My favorite Christmas season de-stressor is sitting by the fireside with my favorite childish indulgences: hot chocolate, cookies, and my comic books. Pretty much all my anti-stress habits include sitting around and reading.
Which simple, tasteful gift would you give to ALL the adults of your gift list? Hhhhmmmm. I think that a gift certificate to Barnes&Noble or Borders would be appreciated by everyone. A gift certificate to Starbucks. Perhaps with a festive-looking small food treat tied to the wrapping of the gift certificate. Everyone would probably use either gift. It doesn't seem very personal though.
On the good side -- it wouldn't cause clutter!
Sapsorrow -- it is not the gifts that cause stress here, either! We have basically eliminated gifts to adults in the extended family (the younger generation of adults arranged this!)
What causes stress in our family is having to do too much in too little time! I try to get things done in advance where possible (thanks MHH) -- and then I am available to help fill in for other family members. That is a win-win for me -- since being around said other family members at Christmas is just what I want to do!
On the good side -- it wouldn't cause clutter!
Sapsorrow -- it is not the gifts that cause stress here, either! We have basically eliminated gifts to adults in the extended family (the younger generation of adults arranged this!)
What causes stress in our family is having to do too much in too little time! I try to get things done in advance where possible (thanks MHH) -- and then I am available to help fill in for other family members. That is a win-win for me -- since being around said other family members at Christmas is just what I want to do!
Maybe "what causes stress at Christmas" should be its own thread, but what stresses me is getting the kids in the car to go to their grandparents, then having to police them all day and be on "guest behavior" in someone else's house. Not much fireside unwinding in that scenario, and we're actually very relaxed and not really "guests" at my parents' house since we visit them half the days of the week! However, their house is not childproofed at all.
Whoops! Missed that completely: everyone in my family would flip for a bookstore gift card, and it would seem pretty personal. I get B&N gift cards from relations every year. But we give lots and lots of gifts (we also have very few people on our gift lists, which is probably why it isn't stressful).
The thing that stressed me out at Christmas was entirely my doing.
My children are now 17 and 21 and at Christmas I was expecting much more excitement then what I got. I think I was waiting for the kids to jump up and down and squeal with delight everytime they opened a gift. Of course what I got is "that's nice, thanks mum and dad". Even when DD opened her IPOD Touch that she had coveted all year her reaction was "Oh great you guys".
Now these are perfectly adult reactions to receiving a gift, but I did not want adult reaction, I wanted giggles and squeals and hugs and excitement. I was totally bummed for most of the day and I did not have a very nice time at all. When I sat down with the kids later and asked what they thought of the day, the gifts, the food etc, they said that they had a terrific day and everything was great.
So to eliminate stress from my day I am going to have to realize that I have two adult children and that Christmas from now on might not be just about how I want it to be, it may be different but still great.
My children are now 17 and 21 and at Christmas I was expecting much more excitement then what I got. I think I was waiting for the kids to jump up and down and squeal with delight everytime they opened a gift. Of course what I got is "that's nice, thanks mum and dad". Even when DD opened her IPOD Touch that she had coveted all year her reaction was "Oh great you guys".
Now these are perfectly adult reactions to receiving a gift, but I did not want adult reaction, I wanted giggles and squeals and hugs and excitement. I was totally bummed for most of the day and I did not have a very nice time at all. When I sat down with the kids later and asked what they thought of the day, the gifts, the food etc, they said that they had a terrific day and everything was great.
So to eliminate stress from my day I am going to have to realize that I have two adult children and that Christmas from now on might not be just about how I want it to be, it may be different but still great.
Sweetpumpkinpye - I am almost always the person who causes problems/stress for me! I read the article on "65 ways to reduce your Stress at Christmas". (It is at the beginning of this thread.) Most of the 65 are good things to do all year. I picked a couple of them to practice this weekend.
Pick your battles, choose your priorities.
Don't sweat the little things.
We are supposed to stay inside this weekend -- so the road crews can work on the snow-swamped roads. So I will be thinking about my priorities. (Including Christmas priorities.) And seeing how it goes "to not sweat the little things".
Pick your battles, choose your priorities.
Don't sweat the little things.
We are supposed to stay inside this weekend -- so the road crews can work on the snow-swamped roads. So I will be thinking about my priorities. (Including Christmas priorities.) And seeing how it goes "to not sweat the little things".