Reduce Stress Around the Holidays Part 1

Are you stressed about the holidays?  There is a way you can have a stress free holiday season.  In this two part blog, we will discuss how you can relieve some stress in your decorating and cooking. Read this blog with some great decorating tips and next week you can read part two about cooking.  You can learn more at moneycrashers.

Decorations & Cards


Decorations can be as simple as a single wreath on the front door, to rivers of shining, multicolored lights, animated figures, and revolving displays. They can be erected during a single evening, or take months of painstaking deliberation, meticulous preparation, and days of elaborate construction.


If you tend to take the minimalist approach or your time and budget are limited, consider these ideas:

An Artificial Tree. While your initial expense may be greater than a real tree, artificial trees can be stored and reused for years. Available in a variety of heights, flame-proof, and often pre-decorated, the newer artificial trees are almost indistinguishable from a real fir or pine, missing only the aroma. They are easily erected and dismantled without the need to vacuum dry needles from the floor, and they don’t choke landfills.

Ornaments. The appearance of an ornament is less important than its meaning or the memories associated with it. My favorite is a bedraggled, yellowed angel with a missing halo for the top of our tree which I inherited and still reminds me of my earliest Christmases. Children are exceptionally creative and, given the opportunity, will envelop a tree with homemade decorations and chains, each more treasured as the years fly by.

Greeting Cards and Annual Letters. The practice of sending tens or hundreds of seasonal greeting cards is observed less and less each year, particularly those which are mass printed and signed. Few recipients do more than glance at a card, note the identity of the sender, and mentally add another name to their own list of cards to be given in return. Sending non-personal, generic cards to a group of near strangers is not worth the effort or expense. Mass-mailing eCards is even more inane and may be viewed negatively by the receiver. On the other hand, a personal note and a signature on a unique card or a letter chronicling family/personal events of the previous year mailed to family and friends is a custom that will never go out of style. It is also a chore that can be done prior to the beginning of the multiple duties required during the Christmas season.