How to Prepare for the Winter Holidays Without Stress: 6 Helpful Tips
'06.12.2019'
Source: Delfi.lv
Many people love the New Year holidays, but the time of preparation for them is often associated with haste and stress. The psychotherapist Marite Bite knows how to do this in order to avoid this and get joy from the upcoming celebrations.
Think exactly how you want to celebrate the holiday
No other holiday has so many expectations, stereotypes and ideas that are associated with Christmas and New Year, reminds Delfi.lv. The media, various organizations and relatives remind us of what to do and how to behave: organize a family dinner, give presents, dress up a Christmas tree, decorate a house, attend concerts, learn a poem, congratulate colleagues, relatives, friends, and at the same time always feel joy. However, our desires and sensations may not coincide with these ideas.
To feel real joy, you need to understand which of the many festive rituals and traditions you like and what exactly you can and want to experience this year.
In addition, the holiday is not always possible in the form to which you are accustomed and expect. However, in any situation, you can find a solution if you accept it and think about what you can do yourself in this case. How can you create a festive mood? What will you do on a holiday if the family does not get together? How do you accept these circumstances and congratulate your dear people? Maybe you can organize your individual Christmas and buy a gift for yourself? Or, conversely, decide to brighten up the loneliness of a friend or colleague?
Develop the ability to prepare for the holiday
Have you noticed that some people really enjoy Christmas and holiday fuss? They probably belong to those people who skillfully plan weekends, holidays and other holidays. They learned how to manage stress and plan holidays, deal with heaps of dirty laundry and naughty children.
Each of us is able to learn how to better plan both weekdays and holidays. It is no coincidence that both in folklore and in Christianity this period of preparation is historically emphasized. This is an important stage for the celebration to take place in general, so that it is full of joy, not stress. However, most people still postpone the purchase of gifts and other details until the last moment.
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Make a gift ritual
Often it is the choice and purchase of gifts that creates one of the biggest concerns. Each of us has a more or less wide circle of people whom we would like to please - family, friends, colleagues, teachers and many others.
Do they need gifts and what gifts will be suitable? Will they congratulate you and what will they give you? Will your gift be too small or, conversely, too large?
Ask these questions to people around you and agree among themselves on a method acceptable to everyone. Often, after someone from a family or team begins this conversation, everyone feels relieved, because these are important issues that can actually be solved in many different ways. However, one must be prepared for the fact that opinions can be radically opposed. For example, a grandmother may not understand the desire to refuse to give presents.
It is important that conditions are not imposed and that a common understanding is reached. The options can be different - from an agreement on the “acceptable” price of gifts made by oneself or gifts only to children to the organization of a lottery not only in the work collective, but also in the family.
Separate responsibilities
Christmas and New Year are not always equally exciting events for all family members. Often, it is women who have taken on the role of mistress of the house who are trying to manage to make everyone happy and everyone. There are so many different rituals that the whole family can take part in them. Ask the others to connect while they are still in the process of preparation and divide the responsibilities between them.
For example, why not entrust the purchase of gifts, their manufacture and design to teenagers or grandparents who have more free time? In addition, if the children not only receive gifts, but also take part in their preparation and delivery, this will be an opportunity to show them that sometimes the gift itself and its material value are not as important as the care, work and love invested in it.
Make peace with loved ones
Another very common cause of pre-holiday stress is conflict situations in the family. On weekdays, when we spend relatively little time together, we often skillfully avoid quarrels, but on weekends we have to talk, collaborate, spend time together. This, of course, can provoke stress and conflict situations, which are often impossible, do not even need to be resolved on holidays.
Therefore, firstly, prepare an active and interesting holiday program, plan how you will spend these days. It can be various games, attending concerts and other events. Often it is small children who become those who encourage parents to remember old family traditions, go out for a walk in the forest together to shake the snow from the Christmas trees, and spend another time.
Secondly, during the holiday it is important to create an atmosphere full of respect, realizing that each family member may have different wants and needs. It is not always the most important thing to realize your intentions and “win” with your plan - attention and time should be given to everyone present. Let the kids laugh light-heartedly, taste and compliment Grandma's delicious meal, listen to or even inspire a depressed grandfather or family member to talk about Christmas gifts and traditions from your childhood.
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Enter the rituals
Rituals and traditions create peace both on weekdays and on holidays. The clearer and better the rituals, the more we feel calm and happy with what is happening. In childhood, many of us in the family had rituals that we often ignore when creating our own families. When small children reappear in the family, parents often feel that traditions are necessary - they help in organizing the holiday and sharing responsibilities.
Rituals and a clear plan make it easier to tell children what is going to happen, and also help older people feel more confident who take longer to prepare for planned events. If you propose, for example, to go to a concert the day before the holidays, your grandmother may not be ready for this, because she did not think over the necessary outfit or did not buy medicine. However, if she is timely warned, she will be able to prepare much better and tune in to "going out to people." Whatever the holiday scenario is, discuss it with your family so that everyone feels more confident.
