Anxiety & The Holidays...

Please tell me I'm not the only one who is completely stressed out & feel so rushed by family & the holidays. Every year it seems worse for me. Christmas day is just a big rushed cluster smurf filled with family & hoping People get along. I love Christmas, but the past couple years seem so rushed & stressful. Christmas Eve we go to DH Mom's house then back home to get kids in bed & I need to finish wrapping & stockings & maybe start food. The next morning we have our Christmas with my Mom, Step Dad & all my siblings. Then we rush off to my DH family's house with his siblings, his Mom & niece & nephews & then rush back home to have Christmas with my Aunt & Uncle. In that time lots of cooking going on also. There's also been a lot of family drama this year & my dog just passed away last Friday so I am having a really hard time dealing with everything. I have so much more anxiety this year that idk how to deal with it all. I want to enjoy my kids & DH on Christmas. Sorry for the rant, but I just want some suggestions on how to get through this & be able to enjoy myself & no I'm not on any meds.

I feel ya, we ALWAYS have at least one family member every year who refuses to come to the get together due to some sort of drama. This year it's my mom. It's so stressful.

Add in the 234745 trips; dad's house, grandma's house, in-law's...it's all a pain in the ass. Especially now with a 14 month old!

I am beyond stressed. We have all the family members come here for Christmas eve and I dread it every year. Between drunk adults and screaming kids I go outside a lot.

I'm not stressed, but I have to have ALL my shopping, wrapping, shipping, etc done before the 18th and be 100% ready for Christmas other than groceries because I'm having surgery the 18th and will be on bed rest after.

We pretty much told people that we weren't going to allow ourselves get overwhelmed. They can get mad at us all they want, that is not what Christmas is about. If it won't fit into our schedule, we won't go. I refuse to have those kind of memories with my kids.

Christmas is only as stressful as you let it be. It's just one day, its not worth it.
We used to go to my parents house 2 hours away, then drive to SOs dads house, his moms, his aunts, and then his grandmas because his entire family thinks they need to out do eachother. We no longer go anywhere, and we don't do gifts anymore. I make a dinner and we spend the day together at home. No stress.

I knew I wasn't the only one. It's so crazy & my family stays with us so we have no time with just ourselves or any way to get away from it. The ride in the car is the only time alone with ourselves & our kids. I absolutely hate going to his Mom's house on Chriatmas Eve bc I always have so much to do & the boys get so cranky. They are 3 yrs & 16 months this year. So my 3 yr old is beyond excited & I just want to enjoy Christmas with my DH & my kids without any drama, smurf talking & temper tamtrums from all sides of our families & whoever said about people wanting to out do one another...I completely understand that too bc we also deal with that. Feel like I'm gonna loose my damn mind!

..........

Quoting The Lily:" Christmas is only as stressful as you let it be. It's just one day, its not worth it. We used to go to ... [snip!] ... We no longer go anywhere, and we don't do gifts anymore. I make a dinner and we spend the day together at home. No stress."

We still do gifts, but we simplified them. Made it so much easier.

Quoting The Lily:" Christmas is only as stressful as you let it be. It's just one day, its not worth it. We used to go to ... [snip!] ... We no longer go anywhere, and we don't do gifts anymore. I make a dinner and we spend the day together at home. No stress."

Brilliant idea actually. I know we're all getting beyond fed up with each family member doing their own party stuff. We've already decided that 3 stops are a max this year and next year when Zoey can truly appreciate Christmas is 0, and presents only for her. I refuse to let my daughter remember holidays as stressful crazy-ness!

<blockquote><b>Quoting ModernMan'sHustle ♥:</b>" Brilliant idea actually. I know we're all getting beyond fed up with each family member doing their ... [snip!] ... appreciate Christmas is 0, and presents only for her. I refuse to let my daughter remember holidays as stressful crazy-ness!"</blockquote>



One year we did 18 hours worth of driving, on icy blizzard roads because SOs family refuses to all get together at once. So we quit. People got pissy last year, buy w.e.

Idk how to get away from it all. My family stays at our house doing whatever they please & then when we leave it is to go to his family & I stress there bc depending on their mood is how I'm treated or ignored. No alone time whatsoever. It's just nuts.

We've always lived at least 2 1/2 hours away, so we just stay home on the actual holidays. We use the excuse that it's not fair to rush our Christmas morning and then make the kids sit in the car for a few hours on Christmas day. We also don't have room at our house for our entire extended family to stay here. This year we're going to celebrate Christmas with my family a few days after, so we can do our thing and then still do the family thing later on. I refuse to let any holiday become a source of stress for our family, so we make it clear from the get-go that we won't be running all over the place to see everyone on the actual holidays.