What you are doing to lower holiday stress?

[Gumby]

I will observe my holiday tradition of watching The Grinch Who Stole Christmas and once again bemoaning greatly the fact that he does not spank little Cindy Lou Who and send her right to bed with no supper, thank you very much. Which is only compounded by his egregious failure to keep all the gifts.

 

[Chuckanut]

I will observe my holiday tradition of watching The Grinch Who Stole Christmas and once again bemoaning greatly the fact that he does not spank little Cindy Lou Who and send her right to bed with no supper, thank you very much. Which is only compounded by his egregious failure to keep all the gifts.

And you picked the name Gumby?

 

[O2Bfree]

I talked the adults in my family into stopping the gift exchange among adults many years ago. Everyone had so much stuff already, it seemed silly to pile on more stuff that likely wouldn't get used. Gifts I've received, especially from my folks, often ended up going to the thrift store after a requisite period of retention in a back closet. My lifestyle has always been quite different from others in my family, which makes it even more challenging to give and receive useful gifts. I do send $50 to my niece, who is in her early 30s with a two year old.

We do enjoy putting up lights, and I like making a lighted wreath each year using trimmings from various evergreens in our yard. One thing I really like about the lights is having them on a timer so they pop on before we wake up. The colors diffused through the window blinds give the appearance of a lovely sunrise outside, when it's really still dark and gloomy out.

Though DH and I don't get into conspicuous holiday consumption, we do enjoy a yearly trip to the upscale mall on the east side to see the decorations, marvel at the proliferation (and prices!) of luxury items, and people watch. We'll get there early on a Sunday, bring a thermos of coffee and some home-baked treats to enjoy mid-morning, and be out by 1:00 or so, before traffic gets too bad.

We also enjoy watching our collection of Christmas movies during the month. One I enjoy that we don't have is the Grinch, and we don't have cable to find it there, but I found it recently, ad-free, on archive.org so that completes the collection for me.

 

[Squirrel]

Regarding DM, ..... As far as gifts for her, the woman who has everything or could buy whatever she wants, I realized she just wants packages to open.

Brilliant insight! Now I know how to handle some family members... they just want lots of packages to open.

 

[RobbieB]

I don't do anything, Christmas doesn't stress me at all. Eat, drink and be merry!

 

[frayne]

No stress here, thank you Amazon Prime.

 

[Lsbcal]

Another piece of good luck. DW is getting lazy about dragging the artificial tree down from the attic. We looked up a small tree on Amazon but delivery is between Dec 20 and Dec 30. Ha. Even better luck there.

 

[dixonge]

What are others here doing? Any great low stress ideas?

Yeah, skip the whole thing. Celebrate winter solstice after which the daylight gets longer.

 

[mpeirce]

No stress here either.

Over the years we've got a routine that works for us:

We put on Christmas dinner for family that's in town (which varies) - they've all come expect the wonderful Chateaubriand my wife makes.

The kids are all grown up, so it's a modest gift for them. DM, DF, and DMinL also get a modest gift and that's about it.

We decorate the house inside and out, but it's certainly less than when the kids were at home. Still, most everyone in our neighborhood puts up outside lights and they look nice.

We generally don't travel, which keeps things way easier too. We usually have a house guest or two. That's always fun, probably because they don't stay too long.

Some of us go to Christmas Eve service. Usually the children's service because it's nice to see the little kids put on a pageant and sing.

So for us Christmas is one of the nicest times of year.

 

[Walt34]

No stress here. DW went downstairs and retrieved the four foot prelighted tree, put a half-dozen or so ornaments on it and done. Christmas day we'll go over to her niece's house who is hosting the meal (we're bringing a honeybaked ham, a sort of tradition to have there) and then we'll come home. The only gifts are for the little ones and that's DW's territory, which she enjoys doing.

 

[MrsHaloFIRE]

Yin yoga as often as possible online shopping as much as possible. Mandatory test breaks before social evenings.

 

[O2Bfree]

Mandatory test breaks before social evenings.

I do mandatory test drinks before social evenings and also while cooking that big holiday meal. Lowers stress by making sure the wine will go well with the meal.

 

[GalaxyBoy]

Years ago DW and I agreed to stop fretting about buying stuff for each other and now we just leave a few trinkets and candy in each others' stockings, plus a new toy for the cat. DF was visibly relieved when we asked him if we could skip presents. Best darn decision we ever made regarding Christmas.

When I was working my tail off trying to meet end of year deadlines the only time I had to go shopping was nights and weekends with every other poor working stiff in town. DW was terrified of me when I got home. That was no way to spend the holidays.

The fact that every one of my project managers with end of year deadlines decided to artificially move them up to the week before Christmas because "everyone wanted to go ahead and get his project finished" didn't help. As the specialist with a smaller scope than most, I was on virtually each and every project in the office.

Oh, yeah. Retiring early, that was the other thing I did to relieve holiday stress!

 

[Ginny]

We write checks to our adult children instead of buying them gifts they may not need or want.

 

[bbbamI]

What you are doing to lower holiday stress?

Going to a party instead of hosting one. Ahhhhh.....

 

[Midpack]

We stopped with gifts years ago, we don’t want or need much anymore. We just budget $50 a piece and fill each other’s Christmas stockings, no food or candy allowed. Just some little stuff to “discover” on Christmas morning, and we still have our childhood Christmas stockings, can’t quit them...

 

[Aerides]

When the recession hit, I proposed each adult in our local "group" (me and DH, DS and BIL, and my parents) stop doing gifts for everyone, and instead we have a rotation where each person gets one of the other 5. And we all just go a bit nuts on DS's 2 kids.

In addition, we've always done a stocking stuffer event at my house on xmas eve, with $5 type gifts, often gags, ornaments, or other silly things, and everyone's in the mix on that. I keep that night simple too, as it's basically a buffet style all appetizer dinner (chicken nuggets, mini quiche, frozen do dads I can just pop in the oven right before everyone arrives.)

 

[denstl]

DW and I stopped exchanging gifts long ago. Much less stressful and saves money too. We spend way to much on our grandkids, but this is what Christmas is all about to us. This year we are only getting token gifts for our children and will give them a little money too. Then we are hosting a family outing at TopGolf. We figure experiences and memories worth more than some gifts they may or may not want. Wanted to do a trip together as a family. But coordinating vacation schedules just too tough. Maybe next year...

 

[RonBoyd]

Holidays! What? Again?

 

[Crewer]

No small ones so we don't do much in the way of gifts or decorating. Decorating is the fake tree without ornaments but with lights and I put Christmas lights in other places around the house since I like them so much. My brothers and I tried to stop the gift giving but we could't do it - nearly everyone caved and sent things. But it's usually small stuff including already read books and previously watched DVD's, and we send apples from the local orchard. I always give my kids socks - it's tradition. Other traditions - Christmas eve service at church, Christmas morning at the gym with whatever family and SOs in town, and mid-afternoon vegan Christmas dinner.

 

[NW-Bound]

I stopped giving gifts long ago, when my own children and nieces and nephews got to college. Even in their late teen years, I gave them cash, which they liked because they could buy what they wanted.

So now, just booze and food to share with family for Christmas Day and the New Year. We are going to host the latter.

Holiday season has been low stress for me for a long time. Even when my kids were younger, it was not that big a problem because we enjoyed buying for them.

Although I said no gift, my children just got me another XO Cognac bottle. I guess they feel obligated to get me something after I paid for the family trip to Hawaii, and also recently gave them the gold coins I bought for them decades ago, but kept forgetting and the right occasion just came up recently.

I think I have more than 1/2 dozen bottles of XO of different brands in my cabinet. I don't drink that much anymore.

 

[Souschef]

DW normally gives her sons and grandchildren money. BUT this year, thanks to the Internet, she has found ways to make origami out of the bills.
She just gave one in a Xmas card to a dear friend in the shape of a Xmas tree. cute!
There are all kinds of things you can make with step by step videos on Youtube

 

[RonBoyd]

 

[SpinDoctorTX]

We host Christmas for immed. family & 2-3 SOs- this year prob. 14 people. I do a lot of stuff (turkey + ham) 1-2 days ahead, loaded in what they'll be served in stacked in the fridge. We buy small gifts/ stocking stuffers for us & my Mom, & have all of those things opened up & put away before company shows up. I have significantly curtailed the offerings down to the traditional required things & fewer sides options... *hint* no one cares! We do exchange small gifts between the adults/ kids. Adult kids get a token gift <$10. I buy all year long and pay for almost everything with the $ I make selling things on EBay. So, really no expense, just time spent. I've been making everyone wire jewelry /art/ sculptures. Anything else is practical, or $.

 

[Maidensong]

When the kids were little we spent more Christmas Days in airports trying to get seats on a plane than I care to remember. (The DH worked for several different airlines so we flew non-revenue.) Because we could "fly free" we were expected to return to the home stomping grounds (a 25+ hour drive from our home.) It was always exhausting, but there were always moments that made the trip worthwhile. Like the midnight Christmas Eve service where we sat on either side of the DH's 96 year old grandmother so she could hear us both sing. Forget bath salts or gift cards. With no pre-planning on our part, we gave her the gift she most wanted.

After that, I tried to look for the serendipity in my holidays. Were we stranded somewhere, unable to make our destination? At least we were together. Did we have to stop and rescue some southerners whose car froze up in the midwestern icebox and get them safely to the next town? We taught our girls to help others.

Stressfull? Maybe, but I'd trade our calm Christmas now for another chance to all be together in a heartbeat.