Babyboomers.com

The holiday season approaches. You may be excited and enthusiastic, or you may already be anxious and exhausted.

Your schedule brims with events you should attend and events you’d like to attend. Magazines challenge you to decorate with style and prepare gourmet meals. Your gift list seems overwhelming, and a tower of cards must be addressed. When you’re faced with fitting these annual obligations into your already busy life, you may be tempted to leapfrog the last few months of the year and move right on to January.

Whether you celebrate Thanksgiving, St. Nicholas Eve, Kwanza, Winter Solstice, Navidades, Hanukkah, Christmas, St. Lucia Day, Boxing Day or New Year’s, holidays are occasions for celebration, but they are also stressful.

Holidays offer opportunities for gathering with family, connecting with friends and participating in tradition — all potential sources of joy and satisfaction. However, family tensions, overcrowded schedules, an endless list of tasks, and unfulfilled expectations can leave you feeling depressed.

After experiencing the stress brought on by too little time and too much to do, Donald and Nancy Tubesing, co-authors of “Kicking Your Holiday Stress Habits” (Whole Person Associates, 1996), sought ways to turn the holiday traps that were making them miserable into holiday treasures.

They began by asking themselves several questions:

• Which holiday traditions were truly meaningful to them and which were merely habitual?

• Which social activities were pleasurable events and which were just obligations?

• Which gifts did they love to select and present and which did they hate shopping for and feel required to give?

“To make your holidays less stressful and more enjoyable, ask yourself these three questions,” suggests Nancy. “From your answers, make a list of ‘shoulds’ and another list of ‘wants’. The ‘shoulds’ can easily gobble all your limited time and energy, stealing from activities you truly enjoy. The answer? Reduce or eliminate the activities you believe you should do.”

If your list of holiday activities is still too long, Nancy notes, “You have to recognize that you can’t do everything, do it well, and enjoy doing it. You have to make choices. Baking cookies can be fun, but baking 20 varieties at the last minute can be exhausting. A month of shopping followed by a week of wrapping will take all the joy out of giving.”

To encourage others to share the burden (and benefit) or preparing for the holidays, the Tubesings suggest that you assemble the clan and poll members about what they really treasure about the holidays. Then, make a plan that includes everyone. You’ll treat yourself to a more relaxed and more meaningful holiday.

“Kicking Your Holiday Stress Habits,” ISBN 1-57025-096-0, is available from Whole Person Associates for $5.95. To order, call 800-247-6789. (ARA)

Courtesy of Article Resource Association, www.aracopy.com