The scene around you is bursting with Christmas cheer. Christmas lights are twinkling around you, carolers are singing sweet Christmas carols and the eggnog is flowing like wine. But all you can think of is the Christmas lights are tacky, the singing is off key, and you don’t even really like eggnog. It seems like you’ve gotten yourself all stressed out about the holidays, aka Scrooged. Maybe it’s because it’s a week before the holiday, and you still are only half done with your gift shopping. Or maybe it’s because you are holding your own holiday party, and you have yet to figure out the guest list, or what you will be serving as food. Or maybe it’s because you have agreed to go to your family’s home out of state for the holiday, and you have yet to pack, or even thinking about packing, and you are a going for a week, and it’s across the country in a totally different climate than where you live, so you have to find all those clothes that you packed away for the year... and so on. Now, before you go the way of Ebenezer on your family and start walking around hunched over like you’re dragging a ball and chain behind you, take heed. You will be visited by three ghosts before this article is over. The three ghosts are The Ghost of Christmas Shopping, the Ghost of Christmas Parties and The Ghost of Christmas Travel. So read on to save yourself from a fate of a stressful holiday!

Ghost of Christmas Shopping- Gift shopping during the holidays is always stressful. You want to get everyone the perfect gift, but you don’t want to break the bank. Plan your gift budget ahead of the holidays, and make a list of the gifts that you want to buy each person. This way, you will be less tempted to purchase those impulsive gifts that end up costing you more than you planned. Another good tip for holiday shopping is shopping online. With online shopping, you won’t have to battle the swarms of people at the mall. With a few clicks of a button, you can have your whole Christmas shopping done without having to fight with the mall crowds. Just make sure when you do shop online to check what the shipping turnaround time is, so that you receive your order in time for the holidays, and also in case there is something wrong with the order, you can rectify it. Another good tip for if you are buying for co-workers, or people that you know professionally, is buying packages of candles or body lotions , then wrapping them individually for several easy presents!

Ghost of Christmas Parties- It’s the jolliest time of the year, and of course you want to celebrate with all of your loved ones, so you decide to throw a holiday bash. Great! Throwing parties can be a lot of fun, but the planning and preparation that goes into a party can be less fun, especially when it’s the holidays and you feel like you have enough things to plan as it is. But before you say “bah humbug” to a party, it can be easy to plan if you start early enough. The first step to any great holiday party is great holiday invitations. The sparkling red, gold and green holiday designs will be sure to catch your guest’s eyes, which is always important during the holidays, as I am sure all your guests have several invitations that they will receive for holiday events. That is why it is important to send your beautiful invitations out early, so that way you can be the first event your guests are invited to, and therefore the one that they will be the most incline to attend. When you send out your invitations, it is important that you indicate who is invited to the party when addressing the invitations. For instance, you can address your invitations to “Mr. and Mrs. Smith” if you are only inviting the adults, or “Mr. and Mrs. Smith and family” if you are inviting everyone who lives in that household. If you don’t indicate who is invited to the party you may run into the risk of having more people than you planned at your party (“Oh Agnes, how nice of you to show up…with all 7 of your children. Lovely”.) Now that you have the guest list down, food becomes the next hurdle. There are several easy ways to ensure your guests will be well fed at your party. You can cook foods that can be baked or made in bulk, like pasta or salad or cookies. If you are anything like me though, your guests will appreciate it more if you, well, stay out the kitchen. In that case you can hold a pot luck party, where all of your guests can bring a favorite plate with them, so that way everyone can share the responsibility of the cooking. Or if you don’t want to cook, and don’t want to shift the burden of cooking to your guests, cater you party instead with finger sandwiches or pizza, whichever food you think your guests will enjoy.

Ghost of Christmas Travel- What a tragedy. You’re so popular and well liked that you have been invited to several different holiday parties this year, and you are now stressed about how you are going to attend them all. While you may be blessed with un-Ebenezer like popularity, the stress of trying to find time to attend all the holiday events that you are invited to may result in an Ebenezer-like attitude. Here is a hint. If you don’t want to go to an event, don’t. If you have been invited to several parties on the same day, and they are located in different towns, pick the party you want to go to, and reply cannot attend to the rest. While it is fun to see all of your friends during the holidays, it’s not fun to feel like you’re being stretched in a thousand directions. Also, if you are flying to visit relatives during the holidays (as about 1,000,000 people also are), a good idea is to book your flight early, so you can receive the best price, and also find a seat on a flight that you want. Try to pack as lightly as you can for your flight, as lugging around 12 suitcases is a plan for a day of frustration when the airport is jammed and you have to wait in a long line to check your bags. Pack clothes that can be mixed and matched if you can to give the appearance of several outfits with only a few actual different pieces.

With these easy ideas for a stress free holiday, you will be able to say “Bah-humbug” to the holiday blues!