give yourself a breakYou have my permission to give yourself a break this holiday season.  Maybe if you have permission from a fellow human that has been there, and there are many of us, you will give yourself a break.  That means if everything does not work out as planned, nothing will happen. The sky will not fall, the world will not end.  Ok, there are some prophets that may disagree, but that is a philosophical discussion for another time and place.  

The holiday season is upon us and there is so much to do. It’s time for the hustle and bustle of trying to get everything done in time for the holiday celebrations.  There are gifts to buy, decorations to put up, meals to plan, cards to mail, etc. Whether you have help or not, it’s still a lot to get done.

Give yourself a break from trying to create the perfect holiday experience for your loved ones. We put so much pressure on ourselves and the consequence of all that pressure is stress.  Give up the perfectionist attitude and adopt a ‘good enough’ attitude to keep your stress from allowing you to enjoy the holidays.

After all, so what if…

  • you can’t find the perfect gifts?
  • you don’t get all the decorations put up?
  • your house doesn’t get cleaned from top to bottom?
  • you don’t get greeting cards mailed in time?
  • you forget to special order the turkey or the ham?

Holiday traditions are important, there’s no question about that.  However, these traditions can be modified to fit your current life situation. You may be getting older and can’t do everything you used to do when you were younger.  So, give yourself a break and scale down that task list. 

The next generation is probably getting married, buying homes and having children.  It may be time to pass the torch.  If they aren’t ready to go full throttle by hosting, include them in the preparations so they can decide what to include when it becomes their time to host the celebrations. They will inevitably create their own traditions down the road.

This holiday season, I decided to give myself a break and I encourage you to do the same.  No matter what station of life you find yourself in, please do not allow the stress of the holidays to take away the joy of spending time with family and friends.

What can you do this holiday season to give yourself a break?