There’s no time like the holidays to remind you why you moved away from home.
Just kidding…kind of?
As much as we love spending time with our extended family, there’s something about Christmas that can bring up enough family drama to make you spend the rest of year simply trying to forget it.
So if you want your holiday to remain as stress free as possible, while still spending time with everyone from your off-the-grid sister to your creepy uncle (and his ‘interesting’ new girlfriend), here are some helpful tips..
Prepare Ahead of Time
There’s nothing worse than finding out at the last minute that you need to bring the stuffing to dinner and, oh yeah, now we’re also doing a cookie swap. And you obviously haven’t shopped for cards or gifts yet either.
The earlier you get everything you need done – and the earlier you know exactly what is required of you – the less stress you’ll feel come family time. Call the family member in charge of dinner days in advance in order to find out what exactly you need to bring, and be sure to ask if there’s anything else you need to know.
Ask Your Family What They Want
This may seem less fun than a surprise gift – but for close family, it’s totally appropriate to find out if there’s anything on their wish list this year so you don’t end up buying them something they’re going to return as soon as the store allows returns again.
If everyone just took some time to subtly fish for answers, shopping for gifts would be that much faster and less stress inducing.
Don’t Wait Until the Last Minute to Shop
This is the most obvious one, yet also often the hardest to follow. Shopping on Christmas Eve has never put anyone in a good mood. Ever. And come morning, no one wants to be the person everyone can tell went shopping at 8:30pm the night before based on the socks they had no choice but to give as a present.
Ignore the Family Attention Seeker
Almost every large family gathering around the world has at least one of these at any given time. The drunk uncle. The pregnant teen who was inspired by the show Teen Mom. The newly divorced Aunt or newly engaged sister who both only want to talk about how happy they are now that they’re single/engaged.
As easy as it might be to make sly remarks when you reach your breaking point, don’t do it. Give these people an inch and they’ll take a mile. Suddenly your mom’s beautiful dinner is covered in tears and she will be blaming you for calling teen mom out on skipping the pill because of a show on MTV. Keep quiet, even when it would feel so great to let your thoughts be known.
Drink
As long as you’re with close family and not driving, there’s no better time to indulge in a few extra spiked eggnogs.
Let’s face it, the holidays are stressful by nature, and if you don’t think booze was invented to help ease spending time with your family, you’ve been doing it wrong.
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Cover Image: istock.com/alphaspirit
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