*I have been financially compensated for this post on how to prevent stress this Christmas.
Hello! Today I’m back with another Five Fast Ways post today, this time getting festive. If you didn’t know already, Christmas has always been my favourite time of year… I love giving presents, I love Christmas markets and funky restaurants and the general feeling in the air. However, I also can’t deny that Christmas can get pretty stressful. Therefore, in today’s ‘Five Fast Ways’ series, I will be sharing some easily implemented ways to prevent stress this Christmas, thanks to the help of Bed Guru.
Five fast ways to prevent stress this Christmas
As in all of my Five Fast Ways posts, these may not be things that you can actually do quickly. But, rather, things that will become fast “habit formers” and won’t be too complicated to implement.
1) List, list, list!
If I’m being quite honest, I don’t really know how I’d function in life without lists. I’m the kind of person that has a list for everything, and that only increases over Christmas. Gift shopping becomes far less overwhelming when you lay it down in front of you, brainstorm ideas for each person, and have a list ready to go, as well as an idea of where you’ll get each thing for. For bonus times, you can try and get them done in time for the Black Friday sales. I also extend these lists to food shopping and Christmas meal planning.
2) Reduce financial stress with a Secret Santa
One of the biggest stresses around Christmas tends to centre around money. To prevent stress in this area, why not go to large groups of friends/family and ask if they’d be interested in doing a Secret Santa? That way you can not only set a budget but only have to buy one present instead of a bunch. This should prevent stress both financially and time-wise.
3) Plan some alone time
According to Bed Guru’s digital Ebook, 76% of people claim that family arguments are the most stressful parts of Christmas. Though hanging out with family often can’t be avoided, try and account for some alone time to deal with the stress that they may cause you. This could be as simple as pre-buying yourself some £2 Radox bath soak and promising yourself a relaxing bath the day after you’ve seen everyone, escaping to “study” for a few hours if you’re a student.
I’d love to be like “Just avoid the family members that cause you stress.” But, realistically this isn’t always possible and may cause more drama, and consequently more stress. Therefore, try to plan some dedicated you-time for afterwards.
4) Try and manage your sleep
With Christmas parties, meals, times to shop and people to see, we often forget to rest at Christmas. In fact, I wrote a whole post about how my sleep gets even worse than it already is at Christmas. Sleep and mental health can often go hand in hand, so if you really want to prevent stress, it may be worth making sure you get that rest in. Have a dedicated you day, try to catch up on the sleep that you miss on busier days, or even have a nap on Christmas Day itself. In fact, according to Bed Guru, 43% of people said that they would take a nap to de-stress on Christmas Day.
5) Shop in advance!
People always mock the person that has their Christmas shopping done by July, but do you know what that person has? Less stress than you. I’m not saying that you have to go that extreme, but nothing is more stressful than trying to complete your Christmas shopping super close to Christmas Day. If you try and get a rough list of presents done by October, then you can softly do your Christmas shopping in little bits when you can afford to (both money and time-wise).
And there you have it!
As I said, these may not prevent stress straight away. However, these are tips that you can implement yearly to make Christmas just that little bit easier. Thank you so much to Bed Guru for sponsoring this post, and Merry Christmas to one and all!
Do you have any tips to prevent stress during the Christmas season? Let me know in the comments!
Lots of love,
Jas xx
Surprising how many people are actually stressed in what could be the happiest time of the year! Thanks for this 🙂
Thank you for reading!
Lists, lists, all the lists. Christmas is always kinda difficult in my family as we have a lot of December birthdays so it can be hard choosing gifts. And it’s even more important to keep the lists because it’s so easy to forget what was supposed to be for which. I always try and plan what’s likely to go on sale for Black Friday too and shop around that x
Sophie
Ahhh yes with December birthdays as well you DEFINITELY have to list things!
These are such great points. I was just thinking today that I needed to make a list of everyone I have to buy for (don’t worry – most are gift cards). I have purchased most of Christmas ahead of time in the past, but the last few years I’ve been awful about waiting until the last minute :/ Alone-time/me-time and nap are definitely at the top of my list and go a long way to prevent the stress of the season. Don’t neglect yourself! Thanks for sharing these – great reminders!
Ruth
https://voguefauxreal.com/2019/12/09
Thank you so much!