Survive the Holiday Season

We all know that the life of a mama is a hectic one — throw a holiday season into the mix and life can become downright insane. December often blurs into a marathon of office functions, school concerts, holiday recitals, parties, decorating, baking, shopping, entertaining and feeding people. In my household there are six little people, all with single digit ages. As a matter of necessity, I’ve devised a few tricks to get me through the fa-la-la without having to drown myself in egg nog. My general rule of thumb is to keep things simple and refuse to be pulled into the vortex of holiday hype. But never so much so that it gets in the way of keeping the holiday excitement factor high for all the kids. Here are a few things I commit to:

1) It’s OK if you have to skip that Christmas tree:
Whenever I have a tinsel-eating toddler in the mix (which seems to be always), whose activities extend to chewing on Christmas tree lights, I give the whole tree thing a miss. I know that sounds all “bah humbug” but do I really need to spend Christmas Day in the ER because baby has swallowed a miniature light bulb or given himself a head injury by pulling a tree down? This doesn’t have to ruin decorating fun for the big kids. They delight in putting lights on our outside trees and happily decorate the inside of the house. To their good fortune, I am not an ounce house proud so they can hang up any crappy craft they want. I don’t even care if it takes paint off the living room walls. How’s that for Christmas spirit?

2) Don’t go crazy with presents:
Each child in our family receives three presents from Santa, which I think is plenty generous. My kids are well-schooled in the story of the three gifts that baby Jesus received from the Wise Men. I just remind them that if it’s good enough for the Prince of Peace, it’s good enough for them. Besides, with six kids there is ample opportunity for being overwhelmed with crappy over-packaged toys — all that waste is enough to get me hyperventilating. And I use the term “present” loosely — babies in our house receive a wrapped up package of diapers as one of their gifts. As for extended family, the name draw is the way to go. There is no reason for everyone to be buying a present for Great Uncle Norman.

3) It’s not that hard to live the lie:
Hands down, the best part of Christmas is believing in Santa. Don’t blow it. When my kids start asking questions, I throw out the “if you don’t believe, you don’t receive” line. That stops them in their tracks. Maybe you have some bigger kids who have become little detectives. If that’s the case, keep the presents out of your house until the big day. If you’ve got some smarty pants kids who look at the gift tags to compare your hand writing to Santa’s handwriting, outwit them with some preprinted gift tags. I got the production team at our office to design a line of tags signed by Santa himself (www.mabel.ca) Commit yourself to foiling those pesky tweens for one more year!

These little tricks may help keep you sane as well:

• Keep an updated “to-do” list;
• Get as much stuff done in advance as possible;
• Don’t over plan! You’ll never be relaxed if you spend your whole holiday driving around;
• Try to keep the kids on their regular schedules;
• Don’t let the kids eat too much junk – they’ll be hyper enough;
• Cut your baking demands down by participating in a cookie exchange;
• Re-usable gift bags are easier than wrapping paper.

The holiday season is a busy time for families. And let’s face it, mama is the one who carries the majority of holiday stress. Make up your mind about what is important and try to let the other stuff go. It is supposed to be a holiday and you deserve one too.

Julie Cole, co-founder of Mabel’s Labels, is a mom of six (yes, six!) children and a frequent contributor to The Lounge on urbanmoms.ca.