Shake up your traditions
Sometimes we don’t examine what we’re doing. Maybe you always got taken to the panto so you take your children every year … but they get fractious and sugar-high and you end up arguing all the way home. Perhaps you always do a big family dinner … but now you’re catering for five different diets and people bicker over the table about politics or football. Take a good hard look at your traditions and see if they could be altered – maybe you could go for a family walk instead of the pantomime, perhaps you should organise a potluck buffet where every guest brings a dish and people sit where they choose. It can be hard to shake traditions, especially at Christmas but if they aren’t working, it’s time to reexamine them.
Schedule break times
Even the most even-tempered people can get on each other’s nerves if they spend too much time together. Lots of breaks can help break the tension and give people a chance to spend time with other folk, so they stop feeling irritated and put upon. Plan short walks, ten minute kitchen blitzes (everybody gets a cleaning cloth, pot scrubber, tin of polish, tea towel etc and does as much cleaning as they can until the timer goes with a prize for the fastest worker), sing songs, trips outside to stare at the night sky (looking for Santa!) and other little breaks to keep your family sweet.
Seek out the citrus
Tiredness and stress are familiar territory to mums (and nannies) trying to organise Christmas. One way to give yourself an instant boost is to grab a fresh lemon and scrape it with a zester – research conducted by Ohio State University shows that citrus scents boost the mood-lifting hormones produced by the brain.
Keep gifts right-sized
There is no doubt that the gift-giving frenzy is a major contributor to Christmas stress. Consider whether your family is ready for one of the following stress-relieving plans:
- Secret Santa – everybody gets a gift and everybody gives a gift. But only one gift! Present buying is reduced by 90% and that means better presents can be purchased.
- Kids only gifting – this means that presents are only bought for under-eighteens. It’s a tough rule and you can’t prevent adults buying gifts for each other if they want to, but those gifts should be given in private, not as part of the family day.
- The four gift rule – this rule goes “Something they want, something they need, something to eat (or wear), and something to read”. It’s a way of helping children, in particular, to evaluate their endlessly growing Santa list and reduce it to four simple gifts.
Plan your travel
If you’re going away for Christmas, one great tip is to pack everybody’s toothbrushes and nightclothes in one piece of hand luggage – put favourite bedtime books in there too. That means that when you arrive, you can simply grab that bag and get everybody ready for bed … there will be time to unpack the rest of your stuff the following morning.