It’s Almost Christmas

Note: You may find it a bit odd to see an article about Thanksgiving on a Christmas blog, but the holidays are so close and the problem so universal, that I couldn’t resist including this article.

Thanksgiving is a time for family and for giving thanks for all that you have. Thanksgiving is also a time for stress and for figuring out how to survive a couple of days with relatives you see only every year or so. So what is the best way to survive this family oriented holiday? 

The biggest stresser when it comes to family and Thanksgiving is when everyone starts talking about everyone else. The best way to keep that off the table is to provide lots of other conversation topics and distracters. The best one is built right into the holiday already: football. Make sure you actively watch the football game so as not to warrant too much conversation on any topic that is not pigskin. Know the teams well enough to talk about them and try to keep conversations on that. Additionally, try to steer conversations to non-confrontational topics like the weather and sports. Avoid, at all cost, discussion of politics and the marital status of any female relative.

Secondly, limiting alcohol at the Thanksgiving celebration is key. There is that one relative in every family who inevitably drinks too much and starts the stress for everyone else. So that means if you want to survive Thanksgiving with family, you have to keep all relatives sober. When there is too much alcohol, there is too much honesty and thus way too much stress.

Third, have everyone arrive as closely to the dinner as possible. The more time you can take up with dinner and football, the less time there is for stress and conversations that take a wrong turn. As long as the talk in the family is just catching up and laughing about the game, everyone is fine. When the time goes on and talk can turn to criticism, stress can ensue. So to make sure everything goes as smoothly as possible, plan your time wisely around the dinner and the games.

As you know, surviving Thanksgiving with your relatives can be a chore. However, by following these simple tips, you can do it. Plan your conversations, plan around the game, and make sure you steer everyone away from stressful topics and you can have a successfully survived Thanksgiving.