Holiday Time Stress

[entremet]

Does anyone else get this? Travel logistics, end of year work crap, planning Thanksgiving, Christmas, and NYE all so cl close, and so on all coming together in a compressed window craziness.

How do you cope? I actually like the Holidays a lot, but it can be very overwhelming when you add all the other end of year issues.

 

[LegendofJoe]

Yep, I started to feel the stress this week. My mother and stepfather are visiting from out of town next week for Thanksgiving and we have new appliances being delivered the day before. So I'm stressing over whether we'll even be able to get them installed or not in time. And also my wife and I have yet to buy a single Christmas gift for our kids.

Furthermore, my father and stepmother, who I see twice a year, are going to be spending Christmas with us for the first time. I want to make it a special time, but do I have any concrete plans? Nope, just vague ideas about what we could do. I do have some craft beer I brewed fermenting right now that will be ready when he gets here, so I guess I at least have something prepared.

And oh yeah my 5 year old cat almost died this week, I really needed that to happen :-/ Suffice to say I have a crazy hectic 5 weeks or so ahead of me. And my job has also been awful as of late with regards to workload so that will certainly make things easier.

 

[Deleted member 32374]

Yes.

Because of all of the stress, my favorite out of thanksgiving/Christmas is actually thanksgiving. I've always found Christmas extra stressful, work parties, work, gift buying/getting, travel, crunch time for end of the year shit, money issues, ect. Fuck, my birthday is in early Jan so for about two weeks its holiday, holiday, holiday, birthday, oh dear god give me a chance to breathe and some personal space.

Thanksgiving is just kind of, spend time with immediate family, make some good food, watch football and relax for 4-5 days.

 

[mhayes86]

I enjoy the holidays and haven't really stressed about them since I left retail six years ago. My workload now is the same as any day, maybe lighter since my contract's customer has a much smaller presence over the holidays. It is a bit inconvenient when it comes to seeing family, though. My wife's parents are divorced, so between them and my family, we have three separate families to visit for the holidays each in a different state (WV, MD, and PA, while my wife and I live in VA). My friend and his wife have the right idea; they invite family to their house for the holidays, otherwise they won't see them. Unfortunately, my wife and I don't have the room in our home to entertain that many people, but it's also nice that we don't have to cook or clean. We'll probably just stay home for New Year's and relax.

The only stress at the moment is paying for so much stuff right before the holidays. My car was in the shop for the last couple days, my wife's car is in the shop now, one of our dogs needed an echocardiogram, and I have a dental surgery coming up. We'll be spending like $5k before we even get around to buying gifts for our families. On top of this, my wife is taking a couple online courses, and with all of this stuff peppered into our schedules with work, we don't have time for much else and it's stressing her out immensely.

 

[Musha_Soturi]

If you get stressed about holidays you're doing it wrong

 

[Deleted member 1476]

I fucking hate traveling, now even more since we got pets. Goddamn nightmare every single time.

I loathe the holidays since I know I'll have to deal with that bullshit for another year.

 

[acheron_xl]

Nope. I don't celebrate holidays or socialize. My biggest stress point is the weather.

 

[Deadly Cyclone]

Money and dealing with family are the main ones. Luckily most of my/my wife's family is in the same state.

Nope. I don't celebrate holidays or socialize. My biggest stress point is the weather.

Click to shrink...

This seems unhealthy.

 

[Reckheim]

Does anyone else get this? Travel logistics, end of year work crap, planning Thanksgiving, Christmas, and NYE all so cl close, and so on all coming together in a compressed window craziness.

How do you cope? I actually like the Holidays a lot, but it can be very overwhelming when you add all the other end of year issues.

Click to shrink...

You take it too seriously, if you don't feel like organizing stuff then don't. And if someone else doesn't do it then who cares.

For Christmas i actually made a deal with a few close friends and family that we don't give each other gifts. There are still a few people I need to take care of but its a lot better now.

 

[Greigor the FellHand]

IM skipping out on all my families holidays this year. gonna try to start a new tradition with my girlfriend.

I'm, in general done with needless stress crap. my family generates way to much for my liking.

 

[Wilsongt]

Nope.

No vacations planned, no traveling because family is all in town, no getting behind on work because I barely take any time off...

 

[acheron_xl]

This seems unhealthy.

Click to shrink...

I always hated getting dragged around to see relatives when I was a kid. It was a boring drag.

 

[Deleted member 32374]

The stress of buying shit for Christmas is a bit of a drag tbh. Time, money and worrying about getting the right things.

I usually cope by, and this kind of works, delaying the time in which I actually spend thinking and buying gifts. I leave a two week block, minimum, between turkey and jingle bells. I suggest everyone else do the same. Plus, I try to get away and stay with a friend weekend before thanksgiving, for some low key buddy buddy time out of town.

 

[shaneo632]

Not really. I only have like 6 people to buy for and none of them are very demanding.

I cook Christmas dinner because the rest of my family can't cook and that's about as "stressful" as it gets for me, but even that's pretty easy.

 

[Knight in Shining Armani]

We don't gift stuff anymore in the family and it's fucking awesome.

Holiday to me just means it's time to blast christmas songs again and stay home.

 

[DarkChronic]

Nah. Online shopping as really changed the game for me - speaking of which, I should really get started. I tell myself I'm going to order early every year and then all of a sudden it's December 21 and I have nothing bought yet lol

 

[Hollywood Duo]

Nah, I'm good. Although I can see if I was expected to host 20 people for any of the holidays how that might be stressful.

 

[Leonadar]

I get more stressed about money around the holidays. My side of the family has thankfully done away with gifts for anyone over 18. My wife's family still does gifts for everyone. They tried to do Secret Santas last year where you only have to get a gift for one person, but some decided to break the rules and get something for everyone which caused everyone to break the rules.

I enjoy spending time with my family, but taking the next several months to pay off credit card debt due to gifts is a real drag.

 

[Forerunner]

These holidays are just another day for me. I don't celebrate them.

So yeah, no stress for me.

 

[Deleted member 2809]

huh ?
Also there's a month between thanksgiving and christmas come on lmao

 

[Officer Big Mac]

Why not start in October? Plan what you can. No problem.

 

[Jombie]

Money is tight and I have to worry about having enough to buy Thanksgiving dinner, and finish Christmas. It's always a stressful and depressing time for me. I'm a scrooge.

 

[Ultima_5]

I love the holidays cuz my folks live an hour and a half away, so packing is pretty painless. my dogs pretty good in the car and loves staying at my folks.

we don't really do gifts so that's something else I don't have to be very concerned about

 

[PaJeppy]

Takes a lot for me to get stressed out. All I have to do is figure out a few gifts,help the wife with dinner around Christmas and the rest falls into place.

A lot going on and I just roll with it.

 

[DrewFu]

Nope. My family live locally for Thanksgiving - and for Xmas, I only buy gifts for my immediate family, so I don't get stressed out there either.

 

[Walter White Walker]

No. I just get gifts for my kids and parents and my extended family lives in the area.

 

[LucidMomentum]

This year I'm only going home for Thanksgiving.

Taking the Christmas / New Years holiday to be a complete degenerate and just relax by myself at the end of the year.

But it's less stressful than work so I'm fine with that.

Fuck layovers tho.

 

[Nitori]

I work retail so my job is the most stressful thing. It's hard to plan anything for the holidays since I can't take time off during it. I just have to see what my schedule is and do what I can.

 

[LunaSerena]

Not really. I don't have a lot of family, just my mother, and we try to focus on enjoying the season instead of specing or gifts.

Work is being annoying, but not enough to stress me out.

 

[Jesse_and_the_rippers]

This is why Easter has quietly become my favorite holiday. Candy, cute dresses for my daughters, deviled eggs, and ZERO expectations.

 

[thePopaShots]

My wife and I are completely dreading multiple 3 hour drives with our 4-month old. We considered sitting these Holidays out but there's a lot of family that hasn't met her yet.