✨ Coping With Holiday Anxiety ✨

Do the holidays fill you with dread instead of delight? You are FAR from alone! The events and expectations that come with these next few months can be overwhelming. As someone who battles with anxiety myself, I get it. Here are some of my top tips for actually enjoying the holidays!

➡️ Develop and stick to a budget. 

It’s really easy to get wrapped up in the spirit of giving around Christmas, so much so that you can end up hundreds or even thousands of dollars in debt. However, you can care for someone and demonstrate your love without dropping money you can’t afford on a lavish gift. 

In addition, holiday outings add up quickly. Going to see Christmas lights costs gas + dinner out. You have to pay for tickets to see Christmas plays or go ice skating. Even bringing food to potlucks can get expensive. It’s perfectly okay to say, “I’m sorry, I can’t join you. That’s not in my budget right now.”

Create a holiday budget and hold yourself accountable to it. Otherwise, you’re going to be experiencing a lot of debt stress in just a month or two. 

➡️ Skip the alcohol. 

In the moment, alcohol seems like a great way to decrease your anxiety and help you feel more comfortable in social situations. But what happens the moment you’re sober? Hangxiety kicks in, and you start thinking about all of the things you wish you hadn't said or done. Stick to sparkling water or mocktails so you can enjoy the night without any regrets later on. 

➡️ Say no. 

You’re going to receive dozens of invitations to events both big and small. Before you know it, you’re booked every night for the next week. Instead of agreeing to attend every meal or show you’re invited to, decide what your priorities are for the holiday season and stick to them.

Choose a few key events that you’re most excited about and pencil them in your calendar. As other invitations arrive, you can decide if you have the emotional bandwidth to attend, or if you need to respectfully decline. “I’m sorry, I’d love to be there but I can’t make it,” is a perfectly acceptable response. 

➡️ Keep it simple. 

I’ve seen several Christmas bucket list images floating around already. Most are full of 20-30 must-dos for the holiday season, things like baking Christmas cookies, attending a holiday concert, and watching Hallmark movies. 

There’s nothing wrong with wanting to participate in festive activities this time of year. However, it often becomes a problem when we started to feel like we *must* take a family picture in matching holiday pjs or drive around and look at Christmas lights. Before we know it, these things feel like a burden instead of a celebration. Choose a few activities to partake in and skip the rest so you don’t wear yourself too thin.

Most of all, don’t forget to prioritize YOUR joy. You deserve to have a Christmas season that you look back on with fondness.

Tell us in the comments– how do YOU cope with holiday anxiety?