Eliminate Thanksgiving Stress
I’ve been hearing from so many people about how stressed out they are about Thanksgiving and the holidays in general. I think the stress comes from wanting to do everything, be everywhere and have perfection in all things.
I’ve made a list of suggestions that might help you minimize the stress of these dinners. While it might be too late for this year, it’s not too early to start having discussions about next year’s dinners.
1. Enlist help. You may be able to change dinner to a potluck instead of catering it all yourself. Ask family members to each bring a side dish or dessert. You can take responsibility for the turkey and share the rest of the dinner. Isn’t that what the Pilgrims did?
2. Go Disposable. If you’re having a large crowd in for dinner, consider using disposable dinner ware. Save the stress of cleaning up the mess of dishes, cups, glasses, silverware by having guests toss their place setting in the trash.
3. Recruit Help. If disposable dinnerware goes against your grain, ask for family members to help with clean up. Set up an assembly line: scraping, washing, drying, putting away. If you have four people working on them, dishes will disappear as fast as the pumpkin pies.
4. Make Selections. If you have several invitations to dinners, pick and choose. Some families have multiple events on the big day and I’ve seen couples spend their entire holiday driving from place to place, popping in for a few minutes, then dashing out the door to the next location.
This constant motion is stressful, especially in bad weather or if you’re carting children along. Accept one or two invitations. Ask to reschedule a visit with the others for a different day.
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5. Maximize the Sweet Tooth. Opt to host a “Dessert Buffet” on Friday for the Black Friday Shoppers. You can provide a place for them to refresh their energy and compare bargains.
6. Dine Out. Select a restaurant for dinner. Many families are eating the big meal out. They avoid all the stress of preparation and clean up this way.
7. Hire a Caterer. If eating dinner in a restaurant doesn’t seem intimate enough for you, consider a catering service. Many grocery stores, delis, and restaurants offer a Thanksgiving Dinner “To-Go”. I’ve seen dinners advertised as fully prepped and heated even. Others are prepped and you can do the warming in your own kitchen.
8. Pick a Date. Poll family members for an alternative day to have Thanksgiving Dinner. Some families have a large gathering the Sunday before or after Thanksgiving day. This allows people to attend two family dinners without scrambling from table to table during a single afternoon.
9. Scale back. If you’ve found yourself hosting dinners for twenty or thirty of your closest friends and relatives and dinner is getting out of control, it’s time to scale back. Plan to invite a more intimate group of immediate family members or maybe your four closest friends.
10. Leave town! Plan your annual vacation at your favorite resort and leave the big dinner plans to somebody else. Pour your drink on the beach or salute the ski slopes with a turkey leg!
The point to these suggestions is, you don’t have to do things the exact same way they’ve always been done. Sometimes, a little change is good.
Communication is important though, so start talking now about the changes you want to implement for Christmas or next Thanksgiving. Gain the support of a strong personality who can help you stand up to the folks who are resistant to change. Smile, nod and remain firm that we all need less stress.
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