Merry Christmas From ShopaholicMommy
Merry Christmas! Today many of us gather with family and friends to celebrate Christmas. Your children may have woken you up very early, or maybe everyone slept in and you had a leisurely morning. You might be enjoying a white Christmas, or the temperature where you live might be balmy enough that you can wear shorts outside.
Christmas is a magical time, but it can also be stressful. For today, don’t get frustrated with your little ones when their early morning excitement causes them to crash and burn this afternoon. Lay down with them and help them settle down for their naps. Try not to get pulled into family drama, and wish strangers that you run into a happy holiday. Create new traditions and follow old ones, but don’t be discouraged when things don’t turn out exactly as planned. Remember that your children will remember the Christmases of their youth as they head into adulthood, and will look back on them for guidance on how to spend the holidays with their own children. Just relax and focus on the joy of the season! If you feel yourself getting stressed out, here are a few ways to reduce your blood pressure and bring your attention back to the specialness of the day:
- Have a Christmas movie or two on standby for antsy little (or big) ones. If you’re waiting on guests to arrive, the kids might get restless. Characters like Rudolph, Charlie Brown or the Grinch can get occupy everyone for a short time during the waiting times.
- Plan on little tummies getting hungry before scheduled mealtimes, particularly if you eat Christmas dinner in the middle of the afternoon. If they’re used to eating at noon, they’ll get cranky with no food. Provide a veggie tray, cheese and crackers, hard boiled eggs, cheese sticks or other finger foods that can take the edge off.
- Get the kids outside playing if it’s not too cold and wet out. Particularly if you’re visiting others, too many people in one house can make them hot and whiny. Let them run around outside, with cousins if available!
- Practice ahead of time what they can say if a gift isn’t what they were hoping for. When my son was about three, he received an outfit from a great-aunt. He promptly threw his arms up and said, “More clothes?” with a loud sigh. While Auntie found it funny, some relatives may not, so prep your kids ahead of time that if they don’t like a gift, they can just smile and say thank you.
- With that said, expect some type of meltdown, tears, tantrum or whining. It’s a busy day, and kids get overtired, just like they might on any other day of the year. If they’re little enough, distract them and move on. If they’re older, they might need some quiet time away from everyone else for a few minutes to regroup.
We at ShopaholicMommy wish you a very merry Christmas, and hope that you have a magical, wonderful and stress-free day!
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I hope you have a wonderful Christmas too!
Merry Christmas to you and your family,too! These are really thoughts about Christmas and what the kids might do! It is a good idea to have healthy snacks on hand for the kids. I think that it is so kind to make sure that if a child or a young teen does not like a gift that they say thank you and not be rude when they get something.
The 21 month old (grandson) went for a nap less than 2 hours after he got up…he was very cranky. The 3 year old is playing, their mom went for a nap and I am right behind! Merry Christmas!
great info i will try some ideas i gathered
Great tips! Merry Christmas to you and your family!
Merry Christmas!
Merry Christmas
Merry Christmas!
Merry Christmas to you too!!! Thanks for all you do.
Thanks for the information&merry Christmas
Merry Christmas to you & your family
merry christmas
Merry Christmas =D
well my day was a disaster… we both were sick with coughs and stuffy noses, though neither of us had a fever… kid couldn’t sleep last night and i had to pretend i was (we share the same room in our 1br apartment) and he finally fell asleep around 11:30… then he was up at 6:30 and opened all but 1 gift… THEN came and woke me up at 7.
so i didn’t get photos or even get to see his face when he opened them, i was livid.
all but two of the gifts are being returned. one is being saved for his birthday.
then, of course, we had our obligatory family gatherings, which weren’t family at all because we have none in this town, so i had to pretend to be happy and love jesus and yada yada even though my morning was horrible.
but hey, hope yours went well.
Merry Christmas :)!! My niece loves to watch the Christmas classics Frosty the Snowman and Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer.
Merry Xmas! lol yes we have to prep our little one too to at least pretend to look excited if he gets clothes or socks, practical gifts may not look exciting but they help mommy out greatly, I told him just to think of that lol
Cherry Mistmas and a Yappy Hew Near.
Truth in this! Merry Christmas!
Merry Christmas to you and yours! My son turned 3 in October, so it was so fun having him know about Santa and opening presents this year. He had a few little ‘meltdowns’, but were quickly adverted to another new toy or talking about grandpa and his cousins!
Great tips for everyone!
great tips! thanks
I had the best Christmas , My Sailor Great Nephew is home on leave and it was the best present ever
Happy Holidays
hope everyone had a great christmas..Happy new year
Had a wonderful Christmas with my family, hope everyone has a great New Year.
I love watching Christmas movies with my family around the holidays – my personal favorite is White Christmas! Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! 🙂