How to Get Rid of Holiday Stress & Enjoy the Magic
Are you dreading the holiday hustle just thinking about the chaos it brings each year? Or are you as excited about all the cool stuff happening as you’re overwhelmed by all the preparation required? I’m here to tell you that you can transform seasonal stress into festive joy with a few strategic tweaks to your routine, and a little mindset shift. This post isn't just about surviving the holiday season—it's about actually enjoying one of the most wonderful times of the year!
Ever since I had my own home, specially after having kids, I've realized that creating Christmas magic involves quite an effort: getting gifts for everyone, ensuring the kids write their letters to Santa, planning family gatherings, crafting festive menus for those gatherings, and managing decorations and advent calendars—it's non-stop! And then, when we moved to the US, the holiday season took on a whole new level of mental load! With school countdowns, class parties, gifts for teachers and staff and volunteering for wrapping, cookie parties, white elephant parties, favorite things parties, neighborhood light displays... It’s all wonderfully festive but undeniably crazy, pushing me to leverage my best organizational skills to manage the chaos and still savor the moment. So keep reading, and you’ll learn my strategies to streamline your holiday preparations while shifting your mindset, ensuring you have the time and the calm to actually enjoy the magic of the season.
5 mind-shifts to Prioritize your Happiness and Enjoy the Magic
Shift from Perfectionism to Beautiful Reality: I can’t stress this enough— perfectionism will drive you crazy. Embrace imperfection; it's real, beautiful, less stressful, and puts less weight on your shoulders. This mindset shift is key!
Pro tip: If you're still wrestling with perfectionism, check out my post about the Perfection Trap to help you let go of this time-consuming obsession.
Reflect on Your Wishes and Expectations: We often get carried away by family traditions, school demands, and the endless things we’ve piled on our shoulders over the years. Stop, take your journal, and let your inner voice out. Keep writing until you discover what you truly want, what brings you joy. You deserve to enjoy it too!
Specific action & tip: Avoid the trap of thinking, "I’m happy if everyone else is happy." Identify your own wishes and desires, and once clear, share them to ensure they are prioritized.
Sharing is Caring (a.k.a. Delegate!): Repeat after me: "I don’t have to do it all" and go on as many times as needed. This season, spread not just joy but tasks too and change that mindset that everything is your responsibility.
Specific action/tip for partners: If they have been less involved in the past, put them on board! Create a gift list together and go through necessary tasks as a team. Share the responsibility and then divide the execution based on each other’s availability.
Specific action/tip for families: Don’t be the single contact for everyone's questions, demands, and requests; you cannot be anymore the middle-person and bottle-stressed-neck for everything. Try delegating to your partner the contact with their side of the family or create a family group with all other adults so everyone participates and is on the same page.
Extra-tips: For school issues you can partner and divide tasks with parent-friends using each other’s abilities (creativity, availability, organization…). For kids countdowns you can involve them by creating an easy-to-follow calendar on the fridge so they know what to do every day. Can you think of other ideas?
Be More Present and Enjoy the Process: Sometimes we're so caught up in the to-do list that we don't enjoy what we're doing. It’s like having an amazing meal to eat, but you swallow it so fast because you’re already thinking about what you’ll do next after eating, that you don’t enjoy the meal, the flavors, the textures… Be present and savor the moment.
Specific action & tip: Shift the focus from "I'm so stressed buying this stuff" to "I'm excited to see their faces when they open these gifts!". Or instead of missing the gifts-opening or fun chatting to anticipate the next step, be there! And when it’s finished, ask everyone to cooperate on the next thing so that you’re not alone and it’s done faster.
Embrace Less is More & the Importance of Values: Fewer, more meaningful gatherings and thoughtful presents can enhance the holiday spirit. Remember, excess often leads to more stress, more cost, and less enjoyment.
Specific action & tip: Evaluate how much true joy your activities and gifts bring and adjust accordingly to save money, time, stress, and chaos at home. For example, our Santa list* consists of: one toy they truly want, a nice piece of clothes, a game to play with others (like board games or a ball), a learning toy or game like a puzzle, and a book. And then we add one extra toy that is a surprise.
*Note: we love the approach that Santa should bring similar gifts for every kid, regardless of their wealth. That helps us to keep it simple.
5 Practical Organizing Tips to Smooth Tasks and Save Time
Prioritize Your Commitments & Schedule Downtime: As the invitations roll in, it’s tempting to say yes to everything. This season, choose wisely—being mindful of your commitments can prevent burnout and enhance your enjoyment of each event.
Specific Action & Tip: List all potential events and rank them based on their importance to you and your family. Using a calendar can help you visually manage your schedule and ensure that you have time to rest and reset between events.
Simplify Gift-Giving: Gift-giving should be a joy, not a frantic dash around crowded malls. Streamline your approach to save both time and stress. Specific Action & Tips:
If shopping is a stress point, consider a family Secret Santa, agree on homemade gifts this year, or set a clear budget and make each family manage its own gifts.
Share wish lists to better manage expectations and simplify shopping. Consider creating lists online with links to make it easier, faster, and prevent wasted effort on unwanted gifts.
Streamline Decorations: Excessive decorating can sometimes overshadow the holiday spirit with extra work. Keep it simple and meaningful. What weighs more on your scale of needs and pleasure? Are you all in to decorate and be the best house in the hood? Go for it because you love it! Do you feel overwhelmed and don’t actually see the need for that? Then keep it simple! Choose a few favorite decorations that have the most sentimental value and set date and a time limit for decorating.
Pro Organization Tip: Store decorations in clearly labeled boxes for quick setup and breakdown. This will minimize the overwhelm and reduce stress associated with decorating.
Plan Your Meals & How to Serve Them: Advance meal planning can prevent last-minute grocery runs, kitchen chaos, and excessive prices. Also, plan who is doing what to ensure everyone participates and all the work doesn’t fall on one person. Specific Actions & Tips:
Consider meal prep or potluck arrangements to share the load, ensuring not all responsibilities fall to you.
Organize your fridge and pantry by grouping items that will be used together, making them more accessible and easier to manage during busy times.
Set a list of activities/tasks and assigned responsible, so that the festivities become a joint effort instead of a one-person’s burden.
Rethink Chores into Magic moments: Look for ways to transform necessary tasks into enjoyable activities. This approach can turn chores into cherished family memories. Specific Actions & Tips:
Decorate as a family: it will take longer and be messier, but you’ll create great memories while bonding! And kids will learn about the task of making the house beautiful as a team effort, making them future better partners.
Take a morning off with your partner if you have one, to do some holiday shopping during quieter hours. This can transform a stressful activity into a pleasant holiday date, reinforcing you as a team while reducing stress and resentment.
If shopping & Holidays errands are stressful for you do everything you can online and plan the rest for one morning or afternoon. Then book a massage, doing your nails, or a coffee with a friend that same day after the tasks. It will be like saving the best bite of the meal for the end to keep that flavor in your mouth: you will remember your happy moment while the not-so-fun tasks are completed and out of your plate. Double satisfaction!
The holidays shouldn’t be a time for overwhelming stress but for peace and celebration. By implementing these five mindset shifts, and these five organization hacks, you set the stage for a serene and enjoyable season. Remember, the best holidays aren't the ones filled with perfection and tons of presents, but with laughter, rest, and shared joy.
Embrace simplicity this season, and discover how a little organization can go a long way. And don’t try to reinvent the wheel every time! If you’re not creative or you don’t know how to tackle something: ask for help, search online, find inspiration on Pinterest… others might have solved that problem for you, saving you time and mental fatigue.
For more life-enhancing tips and tricks, make sure to subscribe below and never miss a beat on turning chaos into clarity. You'll also find me on Instagram as @martafores_coach. See you soon!
