Dealing with Tinselitis – a Case of Festive Season Madness

First things first, you all might be asking me what the hell tinselitis is. Well, I thought it was just a fun term up until a few hours ago. Now though, I have discovered that it actually is a term for “A person so enamoured with the holidays that they don’t just deck their halls and home, but they also decorate their car, their cubicle, their pets, and themselves.” (according to verbotomy and a bunch of other dictionary websites). This may not seem like a term that makes a lot of sense right now, but I promise that it will. 

We all know how crazy the holiday season can get. While it is a magical time of year that many of us hope to enjoy, it can also get insanely busy and chaotic. There are all the parties to attend or host; gifts and gifts and more gifts; everything just seems so expensive; all the cooking and then cleaning up again; you have to decorate and make everything seem festive. There is so much pressure for things to be perfect and everyone else either seems overly enthusiastic or like they should be moving in with the Grinch before his heart grew. It’s as if the world has an extreme case of tinselitis and sometimes, even if you love/like/don’t mind the holidays, it just becomes too stressful to bare the festive season madness. Well, I am here to tell you not to worry because I will help you survive any stresses you have about getting through the madness surrounding the festive season. 

I’ve always loved Christmas. It’s my favourite time of year, so much so that I even have a little Christmas tree in my room throughout the year. However, I know all about the holiday madness and how much it can ruin what should be a great time of year. I have a huge family, which means lots of people to entertain (and we all know that not everyone in a family gets along) and tons of cooking to do. I also have lots of people I care about which means a lot of time, effort and money goes into gift shopping, and I’m all too familiar with Grinches and how they can put a damper on the jolly mood. So today, because everyone deserves to go through the festive season without succumbing to the overly stressful environment, I’ll be discussing how you can deal with all of it. I hope you enjoy it and I hope it helps! 

Keep it simple

There is so much pressure for Christmas to always be big, flashy, magical and perfect. Movies and the media don’t help because they both show how easy it seems to create this perfect Christmas. Well, let me tell you that as picture-perfect as every holiday looks on tv, the reality is a very different story. In an attempt to make everything so ‘perfect’ you waste so much energy on things that don’t matter. To avoid getting sucked into that, remember to keep things simple. Not only will you have a far less stressful time, but you may actually find that Christmas is far more enjoyable when everything is simple. That way, you get to enjoy the things that truly matter instead of stressing about tiny aspects that aren’t important in the grand scheme of things. 

Plan ahead

Everything goes better with a little bit of planning and Christmas is no exception. One thing that tends to be a primary cause of stress is when everything becomes overwhelming. This is because there are so many different things to keep track of and remember and arrange that you can forget about them and then when they crop up, it comes as a surprise. Planning ahead stops all of that from happening. Make a short list of everything you need to keep track of and when it needs to be sorted by. For example, groceries; gifts; things to do around the house. While this may not seem like much, it does a lot to ease the mind because you aren’t stressing to remember it all, plus it helps you keep track of everything you’ve done and everything still needed to be done. Trust me – planning ahead will save you so much future stress. 

Avoid the mall 

If the festive season madness is something that concerns you or freaks you out, then you might want to avoid places that embody and amplify that madness. Like shopping malls. Shopping malls take the festive season very seriously. From all of the decorations to the somehow even more overly enthusiastic salespeople to the sales that aren’t actually sales, the mall can be an incredibly terrifying and overwhelming place if you are trying to avoid Christmas stress. What makes the mall even worse is that many people who go there have already succumbed to the chaos, and so, not only are you exposed to things that can cause you to stress, but you are surrounded by stressed-out people. The result can only equal stress. So, if you aren’t into crowds or an abundance of Christmas chaos, then it might be best to have a shopping mall detox until the new year comes around. For your own health and safety. 

Shop online as much as possible

Online shopping has become so huge that I don’t know how people survived without it (says the person who hardly ever does shopping online). Even me, a person who avoids shopping in general, thinks that taking to the estores at this time of year is a spectacularly good idea. You can usually find far more options online than what is available to you in the stores, you tend to see more items on special (and the specials can be bigger and better) and added bonus is you can do it all in your pyjamas from your bed. How great is that? Shopping online also tends to save you the hassle of fighting with stores during this crazy festive season and risking that they may not have anything in stock. Just make sure that you give yourself enough time for the delivery because the last thing you want is to get all your Christmas gifts online and only be able to hand them out at the beginning of January. 

Plan free holiday activities

Keeping yourself amused in ways that go beyond watching movies in your sweats at home can get pretty pricey, especially during the holiday season. However, I’m sure that no matter how many Christmas romcoms there are to watch nobody wants to spend the entire Christmas season watching movies at home. You have friends and family you want to spend time with, and you deserve to enjoy yourself. So, plan a couple of free holiday activities. You could bake holiday cookies or gingerbread houses (or have a little competition with your friends to see who can make the best gingerbread house). You could play in the snow (if snow is something you have during Christmas) or take a tour of your neighbourhood to look at Christmas lights. You could even have a Christmas themed movie night for all of your friends instead of going out to see a movie. There are many ways to pass the hours without having to fork out lots of money. You just need to sometimes get a little creative. 

Try random acts of kindness

I’ve been talking more and more about gratitude and Christmas, after all, is the season of giving. One thing that many people find is that the act of doing little acts of kindness, even if they aren’t big or particularly significant, can really brighten your day and make you feel a lot less stressed. I think that when we are being kind to someone else or acting unselfishly, we relax a little because we know we’ve done something good and hence we feel a little less stressed. Christmas is the perfect time to spread a little kindness so maybe try to do a little something once a week. It could be as simple as buying coffee for the person behind you at the coffee shop or volunteering a weekend day for a charity you love. Those little acts of kindness will not only relieve stress and make you feel good, but they will truly fill you with the real spirit of Christmas (that was a really cheesy thing to say wasn’t it? Cheesiness aside, it is true though). 

Learn to say no 

For people who don’t like socialising or big events, Christmas can be the worst because it seems like everyone is throwing a holiday party and they all expect you to be there. The only problem is that it can get very overwhelming and, not to mention, exhausting. Sometimes, even the most energetic person can’t go to a Christmas party every night and still do everything they need to do for their own Christmas plans. It’s okay not to go to every single party you get invited to – you just need to learn to say no. You are allowed to excuse yourself from a few Christmas parties, especially if you think it is going to add to your stress and spread your time too thin. 

Set yourself limits 

There is such a thing as too much. I’ve learnt this lesson many times, and while it can be painful, it usually is for the better to set yourself limits rather than go overboard and commit yourself to too much. Maybe it just isn’t humanly possible to attend your one friend’s party on Wednesday, go to work and do grocery shopping on Thursday, do gift shopping and attend two other parties on Friday and then spend the rest of the weekend frantically preparing for your own party on Sunday. Anyone would collapse from such a schedule. Limit yourself to maybe one or two parties (max!) per week and try spread your Christmas’ chores’ out so that you don’t have to cram it all into one mad shopping spree. Set limits so that you not only manage everything in a relatively relaxed, easy manner but also so that you don’t drive yourself to exhaustion before Christmas has even arrived. 

Don’t let the Grinches get you down 

No Christmas is complete without the Grinch. For those of you who don’t know about the Grinch, he is someone who hates Christmas more than anything else and ends up stealing it to stop it. It is a brilliant story by Dr Seuss so I’d highly recommend either reading it or watching the movie (I prefer the old movie starring Jim Carrey, but that is just personal preference). Sometimes there are Grinchy people who just seem to pop the festive bubble without even trying and even though they can really take the fun out of it, try not to let them get you down. Christmas is such a magical time of year, so you shouldn’t let people who don’t want to enjoy it ruin it for you. If someone is being Grinchy and trying to rain all over your merriment, don’t let them. You deserve to have a fantastic, jolly Christmas so if you’re beating the stress, then you certainly don’t deserve to have your spirit crushed by someone being a Grinch. 

Remember what the holiday is about 

At the end of the day, the one way to keep you grounded during the festive madness is to remember what the hell this holiday is even about. If you are feeling overwhelmed or stressed and feel like things aren’t working out, then remember this. Christmas does have its religious meanings and while it has become a bit of a selfish, shallow holiday (with all the focus on gifts etc.), what Christmas is really about is spending time with the people you love and care about. At the end of the day, everything you are doing is because you want to have a good time with your friends and family and be able to celebrate the beauty of Christmas with the people who mean something to you. 

And so there you have it! I hope that you all enjoyed today’s blog post and that it helps you a little in dealing with all of the festive season madness. The holidays can be really stressful, but at the end of the day, all you need is to be with the people you care about. However, I know that everyone still wants to make their Christmas pleasant, so I really do hope that this helps ease some of the stress. 

• Are there any tips that I’ve missed? Or tips that you use that help you out if the holiday stresses you out? 

Anywho, thank you all so much for reading today’s blog! If you enjoyed it, please don’t forget to hit that little like button at the end of this post and subscribe so that you don’t miss out on any future blog posts. That’s all the festivity advice I have for you guys today though, so I hope you have a great rest of your week in preparation for your different holiday celebrations. 

Lots of Love

Blondey on a Mission xxx