40 Easy Tips for a Stress-Free Christmas
Make the season more enjoyable by stopping stress in its tracks with these expert tips.
You know the drill: Every year, you imagine that the Christmas season will be a swirl of joyful holiday parties, decorating the tree, cozy crafting, stringing stockings, surprising loved ones with the perfect gifts, cooking flawless holiday meals, indulging in family vacations, and generally spending blissed-out time against a magical wintry backdrop. But every year, you remember that reality rarely matches up perfectly with that dreamy expectation.
For all of the fun and festivity, plenty of challenges abound at this time of year, so you’re going to need to be armed with some Christmas stress tips to get you through it all.
Consider the challenge of getting the house ready for guests. (So. Much. Cleaning.) There’s the challenge of travel — with airports more hectic and more stressful than ever amid the ongoing pandemic circumstances. There's the budgeting, the shopping, the to-do lists, and that’s all before we even get into what can be complicated dynamics among loved ones — even when everyone has the best intentions.
Amid all of this excitement — and yes, the chaos — you’re going to need some coping strategies for keeping it all together during the holiday season. From packing hacks to self-care rituals, here's our expert-backed guide to handling Christmas season stress.
Alesandra is a digital travel and lifestyle journalist based in Los Angeles whose work has appeared in Good Housekeeping, Woman’s Day, Prevention, Insider, Glamour, Shondaland, AFAR, Parents, TODAY and countless other online and print outlets. Alesandra has a masters degree in journalism with an emphasis on cultural reporting and criticism from NYU, and a bachelor’s degree from UC Berkeley. An avid traveler, she trots the globe with her husband and their twins.
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