With Thanksgiving over now, you can’t look, read, watch or even listen without there be something about Christmas going on all up in your face. Sigh..

Can Christmas music at least wait till two weeks before Christmas, instead days before Thanksgiving?

Ah where did the good old days go? So, how does one find a bit of joy during the stressful holiday season? That is the million-dollar question, isn’t it?

Between the school’s holiday play, work obligations, Christmas parties, and gift shopping, the weeks leading up to Christmas can be a very busy and stressful time. It’s easy to get overwhelmed and rush through your busy days. When you push hard to get it all done and keep up with what you feel is expected of you? How can you not be surprised, you may find yourself tired and exhausted on Christmas day?

By realizing that you may blown through yet another entire holiday season without really stopping to enjoy it, don’t you think it’s time to figure out what to do to stop that?

There are a few little simple things you can do to make sure that doesn’t happen. If you’re ready to make sure you can enjoy this holiday season, no matter how busy you are or how much pressure you’re under, keep reading.

This is all depending on where you are. 🙂

It’s time to stop and smell the air around you. There maybe the scent of cinnamon scented cones when you walk into the store, someone’s baking cookies, the scent of pie when you walk by it in the store. All these things are just simple ideas of what slowing down can be all around you.

Or you can do something silly like.. Smell the Poinsettias..

When you’re busy, it’s hard to notice the fun little things this season has to offer.

Challenge yourself to stop at least once a day and “smell the poinsettias”.
Take a short little break to enjoy a cookie and your favorite cup of coffee. Spend a few extra minutes when you’re driving home with the kids in the evening and go look at lights. Turn on Christmas tunes and sing and dance through the house. Just stop and have some Christmas fun for a few minutes. It’s a great stress buster.

Get Your Own Little Elves
(Maybe getting them their own planners might be helpful?)
Santa doesn’t do everything on his own, and neither should you. Learn to delegate both at the office and at home. Have your assistant compile the report for the boss, and get the kids to help with cleaning up after dinner. If you’re really sneaky, you can even get them to help with wrapping their siblings’ presents.

When you get some help with some of the things you have to get done, you’re freeing up a little time here and there to enjoy the season. No better time than the present to get good at delegating.

Making A List And Checking It Twice

Last but not least learn to prioritize. The ideas is to cut back on the stress level and to do so, having a list could be helpful. Make a list of what you need to get done today, this week, or before Christmas. Now that you have prioritize what you have to do now and what can wait? Then just go back over it and check it again.

Decide for sure, then strike out anything you don’t really need to do. It’s amazing how freeing cutting out small tasks and things out of your life can be. There are a lot of things we do just because we’ve always done them during the holiday season.

But when you stop and challenge yourself to focus on the important stuff, it becomes much easier to cut out busy work. That in turn greatly reduces the length of our to-do list and with it both the time it takes to get everything done and the stress we’re under.

Follow Santa’s example and just like him, you’ll find joy in during this busy holiday season.

Happy Friday everyone!