Survivable Holidays: Coping With Christmas

Christmas has always been one of my favorite holidays. My mom loved Christmas so it was always a big deal growing up in my house. My love for the holiday waned some after my mom passed away, but it was starting to be wonderful again after becoming a mom myself.

Last Christmas was the worst of my life. I got very sick, losing two days that I don’t remember at all. Those two days just happened to be Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. I ended up in the hospital for five days and I had a long recovery time afterwards.

While I’m completely recovered,  the memories of last Christmas are making this one very hard. I knew it was going to be hard this year, but I didn’t realize how hard it was going to be. There are things that I’m doing to help me cope with this holiday season. I just want to try and make it a good Christmas for my daughter as well as just getting through it for me.

First, I’m trying not to push myself. I usually do a lot of baking during the holiday season. This year, I’m skipping Christmas cookies and rock candy just because I don’t think I could deal with the mess. I usually watch a lot of Christmas shows during December, but I’m finding that I’m just not in the mood lately. I’ve been watching a lot of other shows and only watch Christmas shows when the mood strikes me.

We usually stay home for Christmas, but I don’t think I could cope with being home this year. So we are driving up home to Michigan. It is going to be different and I think that will be good. A change of locale is a good one because I’ve heard that other people go on vacation during the holidays to avoid the stress.

I’m also trying to take time for myself and trying not to stress out. This is partly because it is helping me cope with the holidays, but it’s also because stress seemed to play a factor in my illness last year. I do not want that to happen again so I’m trying to stay calm and as stress-free as possible.

These things are working to help me, but some days are better than others. I’m coping as well as I can, but I think I’ll feel much better once the whole holiday season is over with. The holidays are hard for lots of people for a variety of reasons. If you are having a hard time too, just be gentle with yourself and know you aren’t alone.