How to deal with "Holiday Stress".

December is almost on our doorstep and with December comes Christmas. It is without a doubt a very hectic month for everyone no matter if you celebrate Christmas or not. People start running

around shops with pure shopping addiction in their eyes and the closer it gets to end of the month, the crazier the chaos becomes. Speaking of craziness, Christmas parties are another story to tell because if your family is not the one who leaves the plans for the last moment and then trying to find a venue almost a week before the date only to find out that anything decent in the radius of your location is booked months in advance are they even your family. Oh the joy.

This year, as any other in the last few years of my life, I will be working on Christmas since I am one of those people who sacrifice their family time to make sure you, the public, have am amazing time away from worries, cooking and getting your house "ready" for the family holiday season visits. And let me tell you that if you book your Christmas party venue and think that you are stressed about everything going smoothly, have a second to think about people in the hospitality business who have 200 people like you to take care of DAILY over Christmas and then ask yourself, do you actually think we don't know what stress is?

I found that people tend to worry themselves over a lot of things way too much. It is completely unnecessary to worry about something that is not in your control, and if it is in your control then it should not be something to worry about. So let me share you my wisdom, the experience of Christmas Stress Soldier:

• Do your best but do not over-do it. The problem with the amount of stress you get in December is mostly because people try to fit in way to much in their daily or weekly routine. Amongst your normal daily chores and habits planning comes in - suddenly you need to plan your budget, cook a dinner for 20 people, get the Christmas decorations out of the attic, make sure the Christmas Tree decor is all in the right place, buy a million of presents and still manage to somehow maintain the social life you may or may not have. Really? We are not robots and we are not meant to be perfect, you might forget something one day and the whole world won't stop turning, everything shouldn't be perfect. Just do what you can and enjoy the holiday season.

• Stick with your daily routine. Make sure you find time for yourself and your habits that you enjoy doing.  Keep it going as you would do on any other month of the year, so what that the days are shorter and the motivation is going out of the window - maintaining your normal routine will make you feel more productive.

• Avoid caffeine. My personal struggle. As much as it normally helping your body to adjust to the morning and get your head in the game, it can cause attention problems and irritability so instead of being a superman/superwoman of productivity it might get you quite irate with things spinning out of control around you. Switch to fresh juice and still water - cold water has the same "wake me up" effect on the body in the morning (try it if you don't believe me) and is less likely to cause spiked up blood sugar levels.

• Keep your expectations in balance. You might want it to be a White Christmas with Santa's Reindeer parked up in your back garden and every family member present is the one you actually enjoy the company of but things will go wrong,the family dog will probably eat half of your Christmas Dinner and the aunt you didn't like anyway probably will bring her new-tenth-in-the-year boyfriend and tell you all evening of how amazing he is, and them the best present you will get would probably be alcohol but it is not something that will ruin your mood as long as you are prepared for it. Mentally of course. Just worry about the things that you control, the things that depend on you and let everything else happen as it might.

• Watch your diet. You are more likely to eat comfort foods in winter, even more likely if you are stressed out so keep that healthy diet in the back of your mind.  I am not saying - do not treat yourself - because this is ridiculous, all this party food is on sale now in the supermarkets! I am saying - do not over-do it! 

• Do not overspend. We all want to treat our loved ones and Christmas is the time when we just can't say no to our kids, parents, even pets! I tend to spend way too much on presents because I love the smiles and hugs you get in return when you give the presents to the people you care for. But that lovely act may leave you with a short budget to live on and the last thing you want to do is to spend all your money on everyone around you, but not on yourself. Create a strict budget, plan in your organiser of how much you are planning to spend on who and stick to it!

When stress comes it is hard to just wave it off, so try and keep it out before it is in your home. Keep it calm and stress-less because Christmas is there to bring happiness, not misery. Remember, if you can't control it then it is not even worth your nerve cells.