3 Tips For A Stress-Free Christmas

With only five more days to go, you cannot help but admit Christmas can be one of the most stressful times of the entire year. 
 

It is stressful for three main reasons – you have to start thinking of who to buy presents for, you have to jostle with the crowd for last minute shopping and lastly, you have to decide who to spend the holiday season with. It can and is stressful!
 

But do not worry. Let me share three tips for a stress-free Christmas so you will feel in control all the time and of course, look good for the holiday season : )
 

We all have 24 hours a day but all of us use these hours differently. As the saying goes, if you fail to plan, you plan to fail. Should you attempt to do too much within a day, not only will you stress yourself out unnecessarily, your productivity level will also fall drastically.
 

With Christmas only days away, pause and ask yourself this question “what goals remain unaccomplished between now and Christmas that will dampen the holiday mood?”
 

If there’s something important still lingering in the air, get it done. You do not want to regret not getting it done and carry it forward to 2012. Chances are you know if you do this, you will never ever get it done. 

Time and tide waits for no one. Get yourself organised and put your life back in track. 

 

If you have yet to receive a Christmas party invitation by now, do not be upset. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with you. Remember there are many others out there who do not have a large circle of friends too. So what if you will not be exchanging presents with anyone?
 

Christmas may be the season of giving and sharing. But if nobody appreciates you for who you are, then you should learn to love yourself even more.
With no parties to attend nor difficult wardrobe decisions on what to wear, treat yourself this time instead to that special quality time you’ve always wanted at some point in the year but have been too busy to indulge. If you want to take a short break, here’s the chance. If you want to take up a new hobby, here’s the opportunity.

 

As much as we want to impress others with our presents, size is not always all that matters. Let’s be rationale about it. If you have a big family, large circle of friends or an army of colleagues, it’s going to cost you a bomb getting Christmas presents for everyone. Now does that mean you will save on presents? No. 
 

Instead, you might to relook at the entire situation and break them down into manageable sizes. If I were you, I would write down all the names of the people I would have to buy presents for. And then besides each name, I would give them a weightage. People who matter greatly in my life would be given top priority, followed by the others and finally, rounding up the list would be those who are best classified as mere acquaintances.
 

Now, I would set a monetary ceiling as to how much each gift would cost for each category of people. I cannot, and will not (should I be rationale till now) be spending the same amount on an acquaintance vis a vis someone who matters a great deal to me.

With this useful guide, I would be less stressed when embarking on my Christmas shopping. And mind you, even if the budget was at most $10, I can still get meaningful gifts in town. At the end of the day, it’s not the gift or the value of it that matters…but the heart that does.

 

Here’s wishing everybody a blessed Christmas and a fruitful year ahead in advance 🙂