How To Spend Christmas With Your Family and Survive
The holidays can be a very stressful time for a myriad of reasons. Work deadlines, trying to get time off, making it to all of your holiday engagements and parties, and buying gifts for family and friends and hoping they get shipped in time even though you waited until five days before Christmas to do so – we get it, things can get a little overwhelming. However, nothing can be more daunting than heading home for the holidays.
Even if you have a great relationship with your parents and/or family members, spending an extended amount of time with your family as a grown-ass adult can be trying. Thankfully, we’ve put together this list of tips that are essential for surviving the holidays with your family, so if you’re seriously stressing about having to engage in conversation with that weird family friend who stares at you a little too long, fear not: here’s how to spend Christmas with your family and survive.
1. Keep Conversations Light
The first cardinal rule of surviving the holidays with your family is to keep the conversation light. If you have to sit across the table from your aunts and uncles who use Facebook memes as their primary sources of news, try talking about surface level topics, like where they got their Christmas sweater or if they’ve seen any good movies lately.
2. Offer To Run Any and All Errands
An easy way to both get along with and avoid your family at the same time is to run errands for whoever needs something – it’s a great way to get out of the house and grab a moment to yourself. Whether your mom forgot something at the grocery store, your dad needs another string of lights because the house isn’t quite up to Clark Griswold’s standards, or your grandma needs to refill her prescription, you can typically take as much time as you need to complete these tasks, and even use excuses like “traffic was crazy” or “the lines were out the door” to get away from the house longer.
Bonus: you can also pick up some treats for yourself as we’ll discuss in tip number 3 below.
3. Keep a Secret Stash of Booze
Keeping a secret stash of booze around is probably the easiest way to tolerate the insanity that can be spending time with your family during the holidays. When you’re out running errands, grab a bottle of your favorite liquor or whatever you fancy and keep it in close reach. If you’re staying in your childhood room at your parents’ house, it may even evoke fond memories of sneaking shitty alcohol from the liquor cabinet when you were in high school.
If you don’t drink, then keeping a secret stash of your favorite food or candy is a great alternative option – it might be your best bet for a little bit of comfort when you can’t handle Aunt Susan’s 17th rant about the “rigged election” two years after Trump got booted from the White House.
4. Reconnect With Old Friends
You know how whenever you see one of your old college or high school friends and you say, “We should totally grab a drink and catch up!” Well, you actually should, especially if you want to remain sane over the holidays with your family. Grab a beer with your old high school football buddy, go out to coffee with your college crush, or try to get the band back together to reminisce about your glory days.
5. Form Alliances With Like-Minded Family Members
Big family gatherings can be overwhelming over the holidays – especially if you’re considered the black sheep of the family or have very different beliefs and/or viewpoints from the majority of your fam. If you have cousins, siblings, or other relatives who are in the same boat as you, form an alliance with them – you can even make a game out of listening to your family’s conversations, mannerisms, and actions.
For example, every time Grandpa Bill mentions how Baby It’s Cold Outside is a Christmas classic and the snowflake liberals need to stop buying avocado toast so they can save for a house, take a drink.
6. Pick Up a New Hobby
There’s no better time to pick up a new hobby than when you want to avoid your family around the holidays. Whether you’re all of a sudden a “runner” or “workout enthusiast,” a puzzle aficionado, or simply “can’t put this 1000 page book down,” your family should be excited that you’re expanding your interests and committing to your new hobby.
7. Help With the Cooking
Giving yourself tasks and offering to help is another great way to not only avoid uncomfortable conversations with your family members – or just avoid having to interact with anyone – but will make you look like the golden child to whoever needs an extra set of hands. Help with the cooking, decorating, shoveling snow, or whatever needs to be done – this will also give you a bit of leverage when your mom asks you to go caroling with your neighbors, as you can politely decline since you put in so much work already and “you’re a little tired.”
8. Hang Out With the Kids
Sitting at the kid’s table can actually be a relief, so if you have younger cousins, siblings, nieces, or nephews, try spending some time with them – it’ll be a welcome refuge from listening to people talk about politics, current events, or whatever topics you’re trying to avoid. Play LEGOs with your young nephew, have your niece show you her new dollhouse, or talk to your teen cousin about his first girlfriend. Kids really look up to their relatives, so carve out some time to take interest in their lives.
9. Take a Deep Breath (and Maybe a Shot or Two)
Sometimes, there’s nothing more you can do than take a deep breath and just go with the crazy flow that is spending the holidays with your family. Even if it’s incredibly overwhelming, there’s a silver lining to everything, and if you can laugh through the chaos and all the ups and downs I promise that you’ll survive “the most wonderful time of the year.” Also, there’s always that secret stash of booze to get you through.
