DiLiGO's "How to survive the Holidays"

Part 2

Congratulations! You’ve made it through Thanksgiving intact, and with any luck, you’ve had a wonderful time. But you’re only halfway there. Christmas is coming, and with it, holiday stress enters a whole new level.

Christmas is about peace and sharing, which can be difficult to remember when you’re blowing your budget and spending hours queuing at the mall, listening to the same Boney M tune for the hundredth time. Generally, people stress out because they are trying to do things they think will make other people happy. However, very often they are wrong about what people really want.

So here are DiLiGO’s guidelines for making it to the holiday finish line feeling joyful and energised.

Christmas fact: People feel more loved when you include them in warm fun activities than when you give them “stuff”.

We are all a little tired of hearing about “economic downturn” and “recession”, but the fact is most of us still have to cut back our spending.

Why not reduce the presents this year and turn gift giving into a game that gets everyone involved and laughing? Each person must buy just one present that can be for any person. Then, on Christmas Day, you can play a Christmas present game. For example, everyone draws a number out of a hat and then chooses a gift in the order of the numbers. The first person chooses a gift and unwraps it. The next person can either choose a new gift or “steal” the first person’s gift.  Some gifts will be very popular and get “stolen” a lot.  However, gifts can only be stolen four times. If your gift is stolen, you can choose another one from the pile.

This way, gift-giving is about fun and interaction rather than trying to impress people by spending what you can’t afford.

Christmas fact: It may be “the holidays” but it is also your holiday.

Now that you have eased up on your Christmas shopping load, use the time to do something for yourself. Yes, Christmas is about sharing with family, but you can do that even better if you’ve used some of the time to recharge your own batteries.

So take half a day, or two hours, or half an hour that you would have spent shopping and stressing, and do something you love to do – all by yourself. It must be something that you haven’t done for a while, something that will really nourish you. It may be a brisk walk in the park. It might be a silent hour in a special place. This is a gift to yourself, which will make you far more able to share your energy with others.

Christmas fact: People enjoy food more when the cook wasn’t stressing out.

Instead of slaving away in the kitchen to prepare a three-course meal, why not ask your guests to bring their favorite dish. That way you can make sure that people will eat something they enjoy and it cuts your effort in half! You can still produce your world famous Christmas pudding, but now at least you’ll be able to put all your love into it.

Christmas fact: When you enjoy yourself, you give other people permission to do the same.

If you are the host, do Christmas your way. If your guests have traditions that are different from yours, invite them to try something new. If you have been invited somewhere that doesn’t feel right to you, you don’t have to go. You can choose how to spend this special holiday. Your integrity will allow other people to express their own.

So now that you are released from having to stand on ceremony and keep everyone else happy, you are free to take some time out and play DiLiGO’s Happy Holidays. Because we are feeling generous, we have a special surprise just for you!

When you play the Happy Holidays Bonus Game "Gingy's Holiday Adventure" (level 4) in December, you can win TOKENS instead of points! Roll the dice to move Gingy the Gingerbread man up the tree – and win tokens along the way!