This post is sponsored by Red Baron but the content and opinions expressed here are my own.
I love everything about the holidays and because of that I can only blame myself for being really busy and stressed. What can I say? It’s the most wonderful time of the year for me. We try to fit everything in from Thanksgiving to Christmas and sometimes it gets to be too much. I’ve learned over the years that there are certain things I can do to relieve some of the stress of the holidays.
These 5 Tips for a Stress Free Holiday Season are for anyone that wants a more meaningful holiday experience without all the stress.
1. The first tip is to match up expectations with reality.
The holidays can easily become a time where we can get off balance between the things we wish we could do and the things we actually have the ability to do.
For example, I may really want to put up all Christmas ornaments on the tree, but I have toddler that will break all the glass ones. I’ve learned to love shatterproof Christmas ornaments as a result! I have also come to realize that time is very important to us as a family. It’s okay if we don’t have a chance to put out every single decoration. I’ve learned to be okay with whatever we can do to keep traditions, but still have time to be a family.
2. Set a spending budget and stick to it.
Not many things add to Christmas stress like worrying about finances. It’s best to set a realistic budget with a little room to spare for unexpected expenses. There are many ways to stretch a Holiday budget like making DIY gifts or giving the gift of an experience instead of “things”.
During the holidays we plan out “Christmas light hunting” drives where we go search for the best Christmas light displays. We load up the kids into our van and have drinks of hot chocolate made from home. It doesn’t cost very much at all, but it’s a tradition our whole family loves to do together. Chances are that they will have more fond memories of this than most (if not all) of their Christmas presents.
3. Another tip for a stress free holiday season is to ask for help and delegate tasks.
This is especially true if you are a party host. I am sure that your friends and family could come help out if asked. Make an incentive to help like free pre-party snacks for anyone willing to come over to help. I know in our family that nothing works quite like saying, “free pizza” for anyone that wants to come pitch in! It always works like a charm.
Another idea, instead of going into the store to pick up groceries, see if there is a service that brings them out to you or delivers to your house. I personally like to delegate the Christmas wrapping to my husband. He’s actually really good at it and it’s one of those tasks I dread doing. This way I can spend more time doing the things I love to do.
4. Find ways to make daily chores and tasks easier.
We have a large family and the daily chores are even more of a hassle when we get busy. Instead of washing a million dishes; I like to buy paper plates and plastic utensils when I know we will be short on time. Anything to make daily clean up easier is a win for me. I also like to buy delicious frozen dinners like Red Baron Pizza which means less dishes to clean. Just a pan for the pizza and bowl for a side like salad and that’s it!
5. Plan on having easy meal ideas for those times when you just don’t have much time to cook.
This is another reason to have easy frozen meals like Red Baron pizza on hand for the holidays. Having easy meals on hand gives me more time to focus on the family and creating special memories. My kids enjoyed this just the other night as we put up our Christmas tree and ornaments to kick off the holiday season.
Fridays are usually our family movie and pizza night. During the holidays we eat our pizza and watch a Christmas movie together. Plus, everyone in our family loves pizza. Pizza is the ultimate family pleasing dinner in our household. Having something that everyone in the family can agree on to eat makes my job a lot easier for sure.
The most important thing of all is to have FUN and focus on the real meaning for the holidays. I want my family to always look back and have fond memories of their time at home for the holidays. I don’t want them to remember mommy always being stressed! When I can focus on the important things then everything else seems to fall into place.
So our family is going to have some fun family pizza nights, drive through Christmas light displays and drink up some hot chocolate for the holidays. That’s our personal favorite stress free family fun traditions. We will also cut out all the “fluff” that really is meaningless to us. If anything adds more to the stress for us then we will evaluate it and cut it out if necessary.
What are your best tips for a stress free holiday season? Be sure to share your own tips below! I love reading your comments.
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