No More Have-To Holidays!

How To Keep Your Family Happy This Holiday Season

- Christina Katz

Crowds, traffic, in-laws, extra bills to pay — no wonder the holidays stress so many people out. If you are one of these people, you are not alone. According to some reports, up to 90% of all adults become stressed about at least one aspect of the holidays. And the holidays are especially stressful for women, who shoulder the brunt of the scheduling, planning, shopping, and cooking each year.

This year can be different. If you are prepared to take your mood from stressed to holly-jolly. When you are ready, call on this list of radical advice for grinning all the way through your holidays, rather than grinning and bearing it from mid-November through early January.

1. Take charge. Declare yourself your life’s official cruise director. If you are waiting for others to make you happy — and feeling disappointed or resentful because they don’t try hard enough or try but miss the mark — stop. Make a bucket list for your life of everything you have always wanted to do and start checking off-peak moments as soon as possible. Then, when you are done, put the whole family through the bucket-list making process. Two books by author Lara Krupicka, Bucket List Living For Moms and Family Bucket Lists, make bucket list creation process a lively adventure the whole clan can enjoy on a chilly afternoon or evening.