Beating the Christmas blues and stress

Secrets to making Christmas less stressful and more enjoyable

Christmas can be the best of times. Christmas can be the worst of times for relationships.

Why?

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Christmas is meant to be the time of good will, sharing and joy for people who are near and dear to you.

Yet it can be a time of serious stress for relationships.

My wife told me of a friend who confessed she borrowed £700 to buy gifts for her children. Yep you got that right.

Christmas pressure and stress

During this festive time there is a lot of pressure to entertain, give gifts and travel to be with loved ones. Unfortunately with the down turn of the economy not many people are in the position to provide the gifts that are expected from them.

Like my wife’s friend many people get into debt to live up to the expectations their family and friends have of them.

The problem is that come January when the bills come in they will be forced to face the reality of not having the money to pay. This in turn puts another type of stress on them and by extension on the relationship.

Experts have observed that February and September are 2 months most couples tend to head to divorce lawyers.

Why?

This is because of the headache of dealing with the financial problems from the holidays and gifts of Christmas and the summer holidays.

What can be done to avoid this situation?

Experience is better that gifts

Take your family, partner or spouse out to the many activities that are conducted during the Christmas season. Fun activities actually create more memories then most of the gifts we can buy. In fact many of the gifts are forgotten with days and weeks of getting them. For more relationship tips do check this out.

Here are some examples of low cost activities

• Concerts
• Putting on the Christmas lights in the town or city
• Go carolling
• Shop, bake and cook together.  I fondly remember licking the mixing bowl after my mum poured out the cake mix in the baking pan
• Visit friends and family
• Volunteer to help the needy and unfortunate in the community e.g. Soup kitchen
• You will be surprised at how much fun and togetherness you can have by doing any one of these.

Look for cheaper alternatives

Online shopping and auction sites (e.g. ebay) provide very good products at significatly lower prices than the high street stores.

Plan ahead for the next Christmas season

One idea that can significantly reduce Christmas expense is to plan ahead. During the year as you come across items on sale simple buy these and hide them away until Christmas time.

Secondly you can begin to save something every month so that you that you have a Christmas budget to draw from this time next year.