10 Tips for a Peaceful Christmas With the Family

Christmas with the family – that is a reason for joy, there have worries nothing to do! 10 tips on how to make it a peaceful Christmas.

“Help, it rings at the door! Help, the relatives there! At the same time nothing is ready and what should because your parents now think of me and …” – Stop it!

Although Christmas should be the celebration of love and peace, many people know exactly this situation: Christmas degenerates into stress. And the fact that the dear family comes together finally times again at a table unfortunately does not always mean that it goes in the Christmas days also peacefully.

But to make it peaceful, to make sure everyone gets along, and to make this year’s Christmas a truly harmonious one all around, there are a few things you should take to heart. We’ve collected 10 tips on how you can make sure the Christmas blessing hangs straight.

10 Pieces of Advice for a Peaceful Christmas

1. Nothing Has to Be Perfect

The most important wisdom, not only but especially at Christmas is: everything doesn’t have to be perfect. Really, it doesn’t! Most stress in the Christmas days, is the one you make yourself.

But you can and should take things easy. If the time is simply not there to cook a 5-course meal, to clean the place to the last corner sparkling clean or to decorate the Christmas tree as beautiful as never before … then that’s not bad at all.

Too high expectations do not do the Christmas spirit good, especially if you put them on yourself.

2. Get Help and Assign Tasks

Of course, this doesn’t mean that you can’t make it nice for yourself. Decorating the apartment for Christmas, preparing the holiday meal, coming up with a nice program for the holidays – all this is great fun and increases the anticipation.

The only thing is that you shouldn’t do everything alone, but preferably as part of a (family) team. So get help, ask others for help and distribute tasks. Together with the other family members to prepare everything, already strengthens the sense of community and is often the best mood for a peaceful Christmas.

3. Practice Patience and Serenity

Ommmm, ommmmm, ommm…. Seriously, it usually only brings annoyance to get too worked up about things. Patience and serenity in dealing with others, as well as yourself, are the keys to getting through Christmas just fine.

Grandpa’s jokes are sure to be just as annoying this year as they were last. Aunt Kati will have one too many glasses. And some of the kids will whine or throw a tantrum at some point because things aren’t going their way with the hyper defiant head.

But you know that ahead of time and you can’t change it anyway, but what you can change is your attitude about it! Instead of getting angry about it in advance or going crazy about it, you better tell yourself right away: this won’t upset me this year.

4. Clear Agreements

However, there are also limits to patience. And unfortunately, these are often exceeded, especially within the family. Often, for example, by well-meaning mothers who also this year snatch the wooden spoon from your hand to finally show you how to make a holiday sauce “correctly“… 😉

Or this year the whole clan comes to your home, but the dear relatives hijack the celebration and pull off their very own program according to their ideas.

To avoid such and other unpleasant situations, it is important to make clear arrangements in advance.

5. All Under One Roof?

Whether you (with partner and children) go to your parents or siblings for Christmas, or they come to you, or you all go to the grandparents…. Think twice about whether it’s a good idea for everyone involved to stay under one roof for the Christmas holidays.

The money spent on hotel rooms during Christmas is, in many cases, an investment incredibly well made. One in harmony and peace that is! 😉

6. Keep the Kids Busy

The more children there are at the Christmas party with the (extended) family, the nicer. Actually. Because it gets stressful when the kids get bored, when they want to romp but aren’t allowed to or just get cranky.

The best way to prevent this is to think about a program for the children in advance, e.g. schedule a nice Christmas fairy tale movie or Christmas games in the afternoon. Or the older ones go to the movies with dad on Christmas Day, while the younger ones do crafts or decorate the Christmas tree with mom and grandpa at home.

7. Out Into the Fresh Air

And it’s always good to get out into the fresh air with children. But a Christmas walk is also incredibly good for adults. Most beautiful, of course, in the sunshine in the snow. And if the kids can build a snowman, good cheer is virtually guaranteed. We’re keeping our fingers crossed for a white Christmas! Because even some adults have fun in a spontaneous snowball fight!

8. Long Live the Taboos!

A mud fight, on the other hand, is really the last thing you want to experience during the Christmas season. Even if I am otherwise no friend of taboos: for a peaceful Christmas they are the purest blessing!

Above all, it should be taboo to rehash old conflicts between family members. But even in the case of spontaneously arising conflict topics, all parties should take a step back and simply drop the hot potato. This is also helped by Point 4: Discuss things beforehand. If you are already afraid that your brother and your father will get into each other’s hair like last year, talk to them beforehand and ask them to pull themselves together.

Another taboo topic that people prefer to leave out, especially at family gatherings where you get together with relatives you don’t see that often, is politics. Christmas with the family is really not the occasion to try to solve the problems of the world.

9. Equalize Program

“OK, Christmas Eve we’ll be with my parents, Christmas Day we’ll be with yours, then on the second your sister and family will come to visit, but we’ll take the kids back to Grandma and Grandpa’s and…. and… and… how do we still manage to see my brother then???”

Just because Christmas in Germany has the beautiful meaning as a feast of family and feast of love, of course, at this time you want to see the dearest people and the closest relatives. The larger the family and the more scattered the members live, the more difficult it is to bring everything under one hat. In the worst case, this leads to stress and resentment and to the fact that you can’t really spend time with anyone in peace.

That’s why it’s better to spread out the program and make compromises. When in doubt, say: this year with your parents, next year with mine. Or visit parts of the family this year instead on New Year’s Eve.

10. Take a Deep Breath – Take Breaks

Not to take on too much in the Christmas days is also so important because everyone needs small breaks to catch their breath even in the festive season. If one rushes for 3 days long from one program point to the next, that does unfortunately the contemplation a break.

Small breaks such as a nap or simply times read an hour comfortably on the sofa contribute much more to have with the family a peaceful Christmas, than a durchgetaktetes program.

We of Greatime, wish you in any case a wonderful, peaceful and peaceful Christmas in the circle of your loved ones!.

By the way: maybe you are also interested in more Christmas family ideas? Around the year you will regularly find new tips for activities for families, as a couple or with friends.

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