10 Tips for a Sane and Stylish Holiday Season

10 Tips for a Sane and Stylish Holiday Season

by Marianne Merritt Talbot, Modern Venus Ltd., Lifestyle Coaching that Empowers Women to Live Bigger

It’s mid-November . . . time for the full slide into the Thanksgiving and December holidays! The holiday season challenges us both professionally and personally.  On the personal front, it tends to be the busiest social season of the year.  On the professional side, now is time to really hunker down at your desk in order to meet end-of-year billable hour requirements, and prepare for lurking year-end reviews (why do they have to do them before the holidays, anyway?), raises, promotions, etc.   Is it possible for anyone to not feel occasionally overwhelmed and cranky?

Following are a few tips I share with my clients on how to handle the holidays with sanity and style.  The trick to successfully and enjoyably maneuvering through holiday madness largely boils down to eliminating doing anything you absolutely don’t have to do, avoiding big projects, giving back to others, and adding a little sparkle to your everyday routine.

1. Start a “Holiday Master File.”  In it, place the lists of people you intend to buy presents for, gift ideas ripped from catalogues and magazines, holiday invitations, recipes for your own holiday soirees, receipts, etc.  Keeping one centralized file can keep paperwork in check and will make you feel more organized.

2. Sparkle—go buy yourself some sequined items (sweaters, scarves, etc.) and wear them every day.  Yes, even to the office (to make them office-appropriate, layer a blazer over a sequined sweater or a scarf over a suit).  Yes, wear them even to the grocery store or doing chores (doesn’t that seem so decadent?).   I often have my clients buy sequined items and I suggest they wear them on days they feel particularly non-sparkly.  Notice how this makes you feel better.

3. Start buying presents now.  The lines at stores are not yet too long and your energy level is not yet stretched to its limit.  Make lists of whom you have to buy for, and budget what you want to spend.  Starting the process now will save you stress when December hits and you have even less time to think about these details.  And buy in bulk.  For example, pick up several bottles of your favorite olive oil or champagne and keep a bunch with ribbons and labels at easy reach, so you are never caught off-guard without a present!

4. Philanthropy, Part I:  When you are feeling particularly cranky or tired, do an Act of Anonymous Good.   Leave some chocolates on the desk for a coworker who is having a hard time this season, buy some food and self-care products (face and body wipes, toothpaste/toothbrush, etc.) for a homeless woman in your neighborhood, buy 5 dozen roses at your local bodega and drop them off at a nursing home to be distributed among the residents.   Notice how this lofts you and really connects you to what the holidays are all about.

5.  Create an “Elegance is Refusal List” (described in September's Modern Venus newsletter), where you put on it anything that drains your energy around the holidays.  It can be decorating your home, baking holiday cookies, writing out endless cards, feeling obligated to go to every holiday party and to throw your annual bash, etc.  Write it all down and then start eliminating what you can.  Perhaps you’d rather send out Valentine’s Day cards (like Julia Child did with her husband); perhaps you want to do an “undress the tree” party in January versus having a pre-holiday Christmas gathering; deciding to forgo baking cookies; choosing just to go to parties you know your favorite people will be attending.  Be creative but at least eliminate what you can.

6. Straighten up.  Nothing frazzles you like clutter all over your house or office, does it?   Now may not be the time to renovate your closets, go through all your papers that are cluttering your desk, etc.  A little trick:  Go to the Container Store or other shop and buy some multi-use storage containers.  Put everything that is cluttering your house (yes, everything that is sitting on your desk, shelves, etc. that doesn’t yet have a home) into those boxes, close the lids, and either stick ‘em in closets or cover them with pretty cloths, candles and holiday cards (perhaps fashioning it into a holiday shrine!).   Come the cold days of January you can open the boxes and then embark on finding them proper places.  Right now, just get it out of your eyesight!

7. Go to bed.  Specifically, retire one hour early on all those evenings you can.  Cozy up during this extra time with a good book and cup of tea.  Or just go to sleep.  Now that the clocks have been set back, our bodies are trying to adjust to this shift.   It becomes harder to get out of bed when the sun isn’t even up yet and to leave the office when the sun already set.  Be gentle with your body and nurture her through not only the change in time and season, but also the physical and emotional energy it takes to get us from today through New Year’s!

8. Go for a walk.   Eating and drinking too much food and/or wine can make us feel (and sometimes look) like Jabba the Hut.  Go for a brisk walk at least once a day to keep everything circulating properly.

9. Schedule your beauty appointments now.   Salons during the holidays book up fast.  Pull out your calendar and book all your pampering and maintenance appointments in advance.

10. Philanthropy, Part II: plan your charitable giving and volunteering. ‘Tis the season to give back to others who have less than you, and I guarantee you will be elevated by this experience more than you can imagine.   Check out local churches or food kitchens for what you can do to serve them, budget what you can give to your favorite causes (they count on you in particular during the holidays!), or even volunteer to help out friends or family, like volunteering to baby-sit for a girlfriend who has 3 kids and could really use a date with her husband because she’s going crazy, too.

Comments

[Susan Cleaver]

Marianne,
This is great advice on being proactive about the holidays!

And random acts of kindness are indeed fun to carry out. Last summer on the way home from vacation, we paid the toll for the guy behind us. He honked his horn and waved as he drove away. It was just a small thing, but it brightened his day and ours.

If, as you suggest, we can find a way to make it a little less random (for someone in need), so much the better!

Thanks,
Susan Cleaver
Creative Living Coach
Reiki Master

[Polly Gowers]

Hi Marianne

Hope you don’t me adding a bit more to your 10th point – 'Philanthropy, Part II: plan your charitable giving and volunteering.'

You could actually give to charity while doing your Christmas shopping online by looking for those hard-to-find out gifts by using a search engine that donates a portion of its revenue to good causes.

Disclosure: I’m the CEO of Everyclick.com, a search engine that gives 50% of its gross revenue to over 170,000 charities ranging from global NGOs like Save the Children, down to local school groups. We let you give to good causes while you search the web!

Keep up the good work - always nice to see a blog about women in business!
Thanks. Polly

[Christa Jean]

I love these tips! I'm making my shopping and gift list right now. Plus, I love that now I can wear even more sparkly things!