Plug: Vote for my friend Jay to become the newest South Pole model.
During this time of year, things always get stressful for me. Even when I was younger, the pressure of maintaining my 4.0 GPA, losing friends due to school switches every semester, helping with the holiday dinners and parties, and just a variety of things have always affected me during the holiday season. This year hasn’t been any different, if anything worse. I’ve been working on building up a site from near nothingness, trying to be the perfect fiancée (ha! there is no such thing), dealing with my huge family and their Christmas plans, planning my own post-Christmas plans, worrying about never being able to start university, improving my designing skills, and the list goes on and on. I’ve had my good days and a lot of bad days. Some stress is practically unavoidable during this time of year and so I’ve come up with a list of things that I do to relieve holiday stress.
- BREATHE! This is the time of year where I make the most phone calls. I do a lot of talking to strangers, something I’ve never been good at. I’m often full of nerves. Sometimes it’s just best to breathe. Taking a deep breath not only clears my mind, but it gives me an extra boost of confidence to continue what I was doing.
- Eat. Every year many of us are invited to holiday parties. As many holiday parties that occur during this time of year, there’s probably three times as many “How To Not Gain Holiday Weight” articles floating around. What’s the point of enjoying yourself if you’re stressing out about asking the hostess how many calories her cupcakes have? It doesn’t matter what you eat or how you eat it, just enjoy yourself. Don’t let the stress of weight gain/loss overcome you this year.
- Give a hug. No I’m not talking about one of those half hugs you give your great-aunt who smells like cigarettes and peppermint. Give somebody a genuine hug that means that you care. I’m not really the type who likes to give hugs but I’ll spare a few seconds on my Godkids to just show them that I love them.
- DVD marathons. Absolutely hate the billions of holiday movies on this time of year? Take it as an opportunity to indulge on some of your favorite movies. Spend a day or two with a DVD marathon. You can ever catch up on some of your favorite TV series you missed during the season. I love holiday movies; so spending hours watching Lifetime or ABC family makes me feel better. Also, catching up on my favorite shows on HGTV.
- Shop smarter. I know my family does everything late including holiday shopping. With a week until Christmas, it’s very hard to avoid the holiday rush. If you hate standing in long lines, fighting over items, and just being frustrated, here’s a few tips:
- Make a list of what you’re going to buy before you leave the house. Make sure it’s very detailed.
- If you’re shopping for kids who have very popular items, keep your options open by listing a few more less popular gifts. They may not get what they want exactly on Christmas day but filling in that void with something just as nice may help.
- Shop in the morning. It’s easier to find things and there’s fewer people on the road.
- Buy online! The fee for faster shipping may be a bit more, but it’ll be worth it to know you won’t be standing in line. Always have a back up plan if your shipping fails.
- Don’t fight over parking spaces. Seriously it’s easier to park in the back and walk and you will feel so much better. Wasting gas and trying to find the parking space that’s the closest also allows you to waste time without realizing it.
- Don’t Go. If there’s too many events going on and you don’t feel like going to a few, just politely decline. If people aren’t generous enough to understand that you’re dealing with a lot, it’s best for you not to be involved with them anyway. Make sure you keep time in your schedule for you.
- Enjoy Yourself. More important than anything else, just enjoy yourself. Have fun this holiday season and be yourself. Don’t let anybody stop you from having a stress-free holiday.
Welcome to Static-Romance.Org, your number one stop for design and life inspiration. My name is Angel Y. and I'm a newlywed nineteen year-old freelance graphic designer and front-end web developer. I enjoy fashion, web, graphic, and interior design. I co-own 
Oh, I agree completely! I always get stressed this time of year and forget to do the very simple things you pointed out. I think this is a good list, it’s made me take a moment and go “Hmm, I need to do that!”
I love your site. So pretty and pink! :love: Thanks for the comments too :biggrin:
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Very good tips. I don’t get stressed during this time because I don’t celebrate anything during this time so there’s not much on my plate to worry about (‘cept looking for a job and applying to scholarships). I especially like the last two. And that give a hug thing seems like a good idea. I think I’m going to hug my family more, a simple thing like that can really make someone feel better.
Ugh! This entire semester has been stressful for me! It especially gets worse around the holidays…you have to spend spend spend on gifts you can’t afford.
I’ll keep these in mind as the holiday season comes to a close.
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i love the color pink so i naturally love your layout! very easy to navigate. you gave great advice! oh! & congratulations on being engaged. even if you have been for..well i dont know but it’s still very lovely that you have someone to share this holiday season with. :)
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:biggrin: 4.0 gpa??????????
what does that even look like.
lol. Yup u sounded supa stressed.
I don’t don’t find the holidays stressful at all.
I love em
Your friend Jay is cute. Haha. I voted for him!
DVD Marathons – I agree. I’m going through the holiday stress too but I still make time to watch movies on DVD (since we recently stopped subscribing to cable =[)
I also bought a few stuff online. Only because most stores offer free shipping. I normally wouldn’t buy online because of shipping and handling adding up to the price of what I’m buying. I’m too stingy. lol
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Thank you =D! That sucks that you’re already 19 and still can’t buy alcohol :ugh:
Thanks for the tips! love them
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These are definitely some great ideas, and if I were celebrating Christmas this year…I would definitely use some of them. :smile:
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awh, I didn’t know you were engaged, how sweet. :love: Don’t try to be perfect though, just be yourself, perfection is boring. :upsidedown: Yeah, some stress is unavoidable, no matter how positive you try to be, but you can always look at the glass half full and just move on past it once it’s over ya know.
“half hugs you give your great-aunt who smells like cigarettes and peppermint. ” -LMAO, that’s hilarious! :kiss: Hugs always help me feel better, if they seem genuine to me, I don’t like giving fake hugs, it’s icky, hehe. [i'm being random]
Ah, I so agree with #5, people spend 10 hours trying to find a close parking space, what’s wrong with just walking?! Like at my school, people spend 10 minutes waiting on the elevator when they could have gotten where they needed to go by using the stairs, I mean c’mon, how lazy can you be?! lmao
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I don’t stress whenever the holidays come around because I am really not doing anything to be stressing about. This is a good post though and good tips. I have a Christmas party that is coming up this weekend so I am going to try to enjoy myself without worrying about silly stuff. (^.^)v