While it can be enjoyable to spend time with family members over the holidays, especially those that you might not see often like your elderly loved ones living in assisted living facilities, many people also find that spending time with family during the holidays can be very stressful. Thankfully, there are things that you can do to help this time be less stressful for you and encourage the rest of your family to find it less stressful as well.
To help you see how this can be done, here are three tips for more peaceful family celebrations at the holidays.
Keep Your Expectations In Check
One of the first and best things that you can do in preparation for spending time with your extended family during various holidays is to keep your expectations in check.
If, in the past, you’ve been triggered or irritated by things that various family members have done, don’t necessarily expect for those issues to not come up again. But if you can know within yourself that you either won’t let those things get a rise out of you or will excuse yourself from any situation where you feel that you’re losing the peace that you want to feel, then you may be able to make the best out of any situation that could start to turn south.
Set Up Some Ground Rules
To help you to know if and when the time has come that you’d want to either excuse yourself from a situation or address something that someone in your extended family has said or done during your holiday get-togethers, you can come up with some ground rules on these situations for yourself.
Additionally, if your family is one that always tends to get into disagreements about the same issues, you might discuss beforehand about how you’re excited to see everything but won’t be engaging in any conversations that could get dicey and would encourage everyone else to do the same.
Plan To Do Something Fun
Oftentimes, it’s when there’s a lull in your family get-together that things can start to get heated or contentious over the holidays.
To keep this from happening, try to plan something for the get-together that will allow everyone to have fun and use this fun as a buffer of sorts. The fun activity could include things like doing a gift exchange, playing a group game, splitting off and doing smaller activities, or other light-hearted activities that everyone can participate in. These types of things could be just the distractions that everyone needs to keep the peace.
If you have a big family holiday celebration coming up that you want to feel peaceful about, consider using the tips mentioned above to help you learn how this might be accomplished for you and your family.
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