I know that you really don’t want to think about Christmas, but I expect you are already worrying about it, particularly with the financial pressures we have right now but it’s not going anywhere, and we need to plan to minimise the anxiety
If you would like to feel less overwhelmed this Christmas, there are a few practical things that might help;
- What could you do differently this year to keep the costs down? Can you share the load with others?
- Are there things that you can start buying now (an item per week) that you could put in the cupboard for Christmas – tinned goods, Christmas crackers, Christmas pudding etc.
- Buy your Christmas cards – write out a few a week and stack them safely away to send in December. If money is a worry, speak to friends and family now and suggest for this year, you don’t send cards or that you will be sending out less cards.
- List out the presents you need to buy, if you are someone that buys throughout the year, make sure you find them and write them down, so you don’t end up buying for someone twice. Are there people that could go without this year without causing upset?
- Jot down some ideas for meals and I don’t just mean Christmas dinners. What could you prepare in advance and freeze so that in the run up until Christmas itself you already have some options.
- Block out some time in your diary to do shopping or cleaning or preparing of the house for guests. Do it now so that you know you have time allocated and it’s not all a horrible rush at the end.
- If you’re someone who has their oven cleaned, book it in now – another job ticked off the list. Is that essential, will it make a huge difference to your cooking? If not, save the cash.
Everyone will be finding it tough this year, talk to friends and family, work out between you what you can or can’t manage, if you think about it now, it won’t be sprung upon you so that you find yourself committing to things you can’t manage or can’t afford.
If you set out your intentions now, it’s far easier to manage expectations.
The reality is, December will creep up on us and then the overwhelm and panic sets in, if we plan for something that we know is happening, we can lessen the overwhelm and maybe even enjoy the run up to what can be a very magical time of year.
