Friday, December 27, 2013

The Most Wonderful Time of the Year.. Maybe

Is is just me, or does Christmas get more stressful the older you get?

There are plenty of wonderful things about the holidays. Spending time with family can be comforting. And there is so much to be thankful for when you get gifts that you have been wanting but just never bought for yourself. It can be a happy reminder of how rich we are with love surrounding us.

But there are also things that aren't as pleasant about the Christmas season.

Presents are great, but I also think they can cause unnecessary stress. It can take quite a while sometimes trying to think of a perfect gift for everyone. And then, after you get it, sometimes you are wondering, "will they really like it?" And when they open it, there is that immediate pressure of wondering what their reaction will be. Multiply this by however many people are in your family, and it can be tough to deal with sometimes.

Not only that, but opening presents yourself can be a little stressful. When I was a kid, I loved opening presents and I didn't care that I was the center of attention. Now for some reason, I dread being the center of attention. I am so thankful for the gifts and thoughtfulness of my loved ones, but I am so self-conscious when opening gifts sometimes.

Aside from gifts, you also have to be social and jovial. With conversation bouncing from topic to topic, you always have to be ready to say something that would fit in with the conversation. Sometimes it is tough to remember gifts off the top of your head, and then you worry about appearing not thankful because you don't remember what you got.

This is all somewhat silly, but sometimes my anxiety gets the best of me. I just have to remember that the main reason for the season is getting back to your roots and spending time with loved ones, who love you for you. No one else cares about all these trivial things.

It's called the most wonderful time of the year for a reason. Let's remember that!

6 comments:

  1. I agree with you on the stress the holidays brings. Just today I got a call from my mother and sister saying they didn't like their gifts and felt I needed to get them a "make up" gift. I always feel so much pressure buying my family gifts.

    Wonderful post! :)
    http://neatly-packaged.blogspot.com/

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    1. Hopefully they were nice about it at least! Sometimes in my family we will buy things that we want and someone will reimburse us so technically we will be getting gifts that we like haha.

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  2. I just opted out this year. I asked what my nieces and nephews wanted. They told me and I bought it. I even let the kid pick all of her own Christmas gifts. I'm done playing genie mind reader. It's not worth my sanity. This year I got text thank you's and Facebook "I'm going to call you Auntie" promises that did not come into fruition. So next year will be a LOT easier. I'm just going to text and Facebook "Merry Christmas" and send an Instagram pic of me having a merry one. Manners haven't gone out of style but my credit card racking up bills…has.

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    1. Love it! I went the no-stress route this year and it felt awesome! I love my little cousins, nieces and nephews and do for them as much as possible throughout the year. This year my focused more on the true reason for the season and gave back to others less fortunate than us rather than spending boodles of money on gifts that were really not needed.

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  3. I totally agree with you about the stress. This year was a very light year for us. I decided to only buy two gifts for each one of my children and send Christmas cards to everyone else. Like Jaha, I really think that manners are lost when it comes to saying thank and sending your well wishes. My family didn't get one card or call but we got a whole lot of Facebook and Instagram Merry Christmas's.

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  4. We stayed home and kept things really simple on Christmas Day. We invited some friends over and had dinner.
    Next year, I'd like to fulfill my dream of going on vacation for Christmas & New Year's.

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