Managing Holiday Stress for Highly Sensitive (HSP) Parents
If you close your eyes and think of the Holidays, what comes to mind? Is it:
Rushing around trying to purchase gifts for a long list of people?
Enjoying (and/or feeling overwhelmed by) getting your home decorated?
Making memories and carrying on family traditions with your own children?
Stressing about Holiday travel & finances?
Sadness, loneliness, grief, or other difficult emotions?
“It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year” oversimplifies the matter for many Highly Sensitive Parents. Whether you celebrate Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, Eid, Solstice, or really any Holiday at any time of the year, you most likely have a complex experience of your chosen Holidays.
While the Holidays can be stressful for many people, parents are often burdened with additional responsibilities. For example, the past couple of weeks for me have included: planning and purchasing gifts for my kids’ teachers and coaches, volunteering for kids’ holiday parties, planning and cooking seasonal meals, purchasing gifts and stocking stuffers for my own kids, putting up holiday decorations, wrapping gifts to donate to families in need, making holiday travel plans, and much more. I’m guessing you can resonate with at least some of this!
As parents, we also carry the extra weight of trying to make the holidays meaningful and magical for our children, while also taking into account our own needs and limitations. Should we take our kids to see a Holiday Concert, even though tickets are a bit pricey and might stretch our budget? Do we skip or go to the local Santa’s Village that we know our kids will love, but which may be overstimulating for us? Do we agree to attend a boisterous family gathering on Christmas Eve to allow our kids to connect with cousins or grandparents, or do we stay at home for a more calm time with our immediate family, but risk creating tension with our extended family? There are no easy answers here.
I think it’s important to name many of the above challenges so that we can be honest with ourselves about how challenging the Holidays can be. We likely place unrealistic expectations on ourselves about being totally calm, organized, and joyfully present with our families. If we can recognize the many tasks and expectations on our plates, perhaps we can more easily engage in self-compassion and make some simple changes to reduce our Holiday stress.
So, how do we go about reducing this Holiday Stress?
You may have several ideas on how to make this season easier - feel free to jot them down and make them happen! I have one really easy idea - and it’s my gift to you! This year, I’ve put together a completely free (for now, anyway!) 5 Days to a Stress-Free Holiday Anti-Challenge. It’s a very simple, video-based challenge that you can do on your own time. Over the course of 5 videos, I encourage you to reflect on what brings peace and joy (and what brings overwhelm) during the Holidays, then provide you with a clear, simple system to move towards a less chaotic season. No commitments, no email address to put in, no cost (although I’d love for you to Subscribe to my YouTube Channel or email newsletter if you enjoy it!
Find the Stress-Free Holiday Anti-Challenge HERE.
Wishing you a peaceful holiday season!
