In addition you have also to conciliate all this with the children, the work, the traffic and sometimes with the bad weather. In this article you can find some little advice to live through the Christmas holidays without stress.

1) The Gifts. Why people spend a lot of money and time for Christmas gifts? Different times because they would appear as those who are always able to find the perfect gift, to amaze every year the relatives, to avoid making a poor showing …In this way the choice produces a lot of stress and anxiety. But is it really necessary all this? Probably, no. Well, this year decide to buy presents only for the people that are very important for you and remember that it's the thought that counts.

2) Snake Relatives. In these days many people suffer from “Christmas symptom” that produces physical and psychological diseases. The cause of this "symptom" is the stress produced by the long family reunions with not very pleasant relatives. If you want avoid the Christmas "symptom" try to discover the sunny side of every person and spend with relatives the shortest time as possible; remember that it’s more important the quality of time spent with them than the quantity.

3) Anxiety for the performance. Some of the most important reasons of the Christmas stress are the need to satisfy everyone and the necessity to do the best you can, but don’t forget that Christmas is all over the all a feast, also with some flaws.

4) Make flexible program. The checklist is important but don’t let luck you up from it. If you program all people that you would like to visit during the holiday, all housework that you would like to do, … it’s very easy to have an anxiety attack. For this reason make only the necessary and face every activitiy with a smile, but all over the all sometimes foul up the program and relax yourself.

5) Christmas binge: both a blessing and a curse. If your stress is caused by the calories that you will ingest during the holiday, the piece of advice is to reduce the portion of food, and renounce to pandoro, panettone and dried fruit. Avoid also to eat sweets between meals, preferring fresh fruit or yogurt. If it is impossible for you to resist temptation, than enjoy the food and the company…you can start the diet after Epiphany.

6) If you wish find again the real Christmas’ spirit you can adhere to the different initiatives aimed to the people who need help. For example you can buy a responsible greetings, to gift a child sponsorship, to support with a donation the voluntary organizations that offer the Christmas lunch for the poor. Maybe you can also add one place at your Christmas table for one pauper, it’s important that the solidarity doesn’t know the crisis.

Published 20 December 2016