As we grow older, the holidays become more and more about family, the people we love, and the times we spend together. We care less about the presents and more about the traditions. Surrounded with family and friends we work to create new memories, try to keep everyone happy and joyful and take in the little moments that bring everyone together.
But the holidays can also become hectic. With trips to the airport to pick up relatives, finding space for everyone to stay, and hoping that everything turns out as planned, it can all get a little overwhelming, especially for the host. There is a lot that goes into planning the perfect holiday celebration, but there are also ways to make it easier for you and your family, allowing you to have more time together and less time worrying about the little things.
At ROUGE Fine Catering, we want your holidays to be as happy and stress-free as ever. In this blog, we are going to give you some tips to have an enjoyable holiday season. Read on if all you want for Christmas is a holiday with zero stress and worry.
Don’t Strive For Perfection
If you have always been the host for the holiday get together, you probably have mastered the decorations and brought the wow-factor year after year. But as you most likely know, it takes a lot of time and dedication to get that wow-factor. Even though you have kept the perfect holiday house a tradition for years, your family will understand when you don’t set up all of the decorations this year—they may not even notice. Don’t strive for perfection, it will only make the holidays and decorating more of a chore. If you have fun with it and settle for “good enough” you will be able to get the important decorations up but not spend an entire day perfecting every last detail.
If decorating your entire house, from the floor to the ceiling, is enjoyable to you but don’t enjoy the time it takes to put them all up, recruit some help. Allow your kiddos and other family members to help decorate. And remember to tell yourself that is doesn’t have to be perfect as you watch your toddler place all the ornaments on one branch of the Christmas tree. Your family may appreciate the decoration more because they put work into them as well! This could become a fun family tradition.
Don’t Be Too Picky About Traditions
While we all love a good family tradition and try to get our family to adopt the traditions we had when we were kids, we should never push traditions. If you used to spend Christmas Eve making cookies and watching “How The Grinch Stole Christmas,” don’t expect your family to do the exact same thing every year. Worrying and stressing about traditions is not the point of traditions. They should happen naturally and your family should enjoy doing them. Once they stop enjoying going Christmas caroling, you should stop the tradition. You can develop new traditions or just enjoy something different every year. Remind yourself that traditions are fun and you should not have to force them.
With that being said, there are probably some traditions that mean a lot to you that you want to keep going, so do it! If your family has cut down the Christmas tree for the last 10 years, but suddenly your kids don’t want to put in the time or work, you should do it anyway. Ask if anyone wants to go with, certainly someone will realize how great of a tradition it is and go with you. Keep special traditions going, but ditch the ones that are causing more stress than memories.
Shop Smarter
If you have a ton of family coming to celebrate the holidays with you, don’t buy gifts for every single one. There are many ways you can shop smarter and save money. Ask your family if they want to do a Secret Santa so everyone only has to buy one gift for another person. You could do this in several ways. If you have your brother and sister coming to your house with their families, swap families to buy gifts for a draw name. Your family can draw names for your brother’s family, his family can draw for your sister’s family, and she can draw for yours. This way everyone gets one gift and has to buy one gift, saving everyone money, and allowing the gifts to be a bit more personal and special.
You could also suggest a White Elephant gift exchange. Set a price limit and have everyone buy a gift that most of the family would enjoy. Draw numbers and have people select a gift. This is a great way to make Christmas less about the gifts and more about the traditions and the memories.
If you love gift-giving and can’t imagine only getting one gift, then give a gift that they will actually enjoy. If your family is bringing their families, get them one gift they can all use—a board or card game that they can play during their next game night, a gift card to a movie theater or their favorite restaurant, or something similar. This is a gift that they will enjoy, allowing them to spend quality time as a family, and helping you from spending unnecessary hours shopping.
Take Time For Yourself
During the holiday seasons, we often forget to give ourselves a break. Make sure you schedule some you time and spend it relaxing or doing something you want to do, something that does not involve the holidays or caring for the family. Read a book, take a bath, and spend time de-stressing. It is easy to become overwhelmed during the holidays and start stressing about the things that truly don’t matter, which can make the holidays much less enjoyable. This is why it is important to set some time aside for yourself.
During these hectic weeks, you should also make sure you are not giving up your daily routine. If you enjoy reading new articles for an hour in the morning, then do it before starting your holiday madness. Or perhaps you enjoy watching an episode of your TV show after dinner. Relax and spend a few peaceful moments indulging in some dramatic reality TV.
You should also make sure you are reminding yourself to stop stressing. It is easy to get in over your head, but constantly reminding yourself that you should be enjoying time with family and having fun can help you to stop stressing so much and enjoy the time with your loved ones. Remember that not everything has to be perfect and stressing about it won’t help. So, take a breathe, relax, and have fun spending time and making memories with your family.
Ditch The Unimportant Stuff
Some holiday traditions and tasks are not as important as you may think, and if you hate doing them, then simply don’t. Take Christmas cards, for example. These can take a lot of work and time, and could just be one more task that makes the holidays miserable for you. You don’t have to send Christmas cards or you could simply send cards to only close friends and family. Not every single one of your acquaintances needs a Christmas card for your family. Don’t make this task harder than it has to be or don’t do it at all, it is truly up to you. Think about the different tasks you take care of every holiday season and ask yourself if they are worth your time and if you actually care about them, even if you do, there are ways to make them easier.
Do Less
We already gave you the tip of not worrying so much about decorations, traditions, and holiday tasks, but there is one more thing that you don’t have to worry so much about—the food. No, we do not expect you to ask your entire family to bring different side dishes, desserts, or even a turkey. Instead of worrying about the big holiday feast, let us do it for you.
ROUGE Fine Catering offers a holiday menu, which allows you to pick up gourmet food for your holiday dinner. You and your family can enjoy a meal that is better than Great-Aunt Mary could ever make but don’t tell her that. You can choose from a selection of appetizers and hors d’oeuvres, salads, entrees, sides, and desserts, allowing you to choose an entire holiday meal that you can enjoy without all the preparation work. All you have to worry about is picking up your meal by the scheduled time. This is a great way to give yourself and your family a break. You simply have to heat up the food you select and enjoy a gourmet holiday feast surrounded by your favorite people.
Give yourself a break this holiday season and let ROUGE Fine Catering make the meal for you, not only will you have more time to spend with your family but you will also be able to enjoy a delicious meal that will amaze your entire family, yes even Great-Aunt Mary. Contact us today to place your order, and cross one more thing off of your to-do list.