THE B**CHY, NON-STRESSFUL GUIDE TO GIFT GIVING

I love the holidays! Which is why I want to enjoy them and not feel stressed or overwhelmed with buying gifts. Here are the 3 things I do every year to get rid of holiday overwhelm.

Give Your Loved Ones What They Want

As a little girl I loved writing a letter to Santa and getting exactly what I wanted. Which is why in my family we have the tradition of giving each other a list of what we want for Christmas (sometimes it’s even a picture of exactly what we want). This way, I always get what I was wishing for.

I’ve heard that this tradition is strange and that it takes away the element of surprise, which is true, but in my defense, this is also Santa’s strategy. I would rather love my gifts and not be surprised. Plus, it takes the stress away from guessing what the other person wants or if they’ll like the gift. Win-win.

Make Your Gift Giving List As Small As Possible

I used to feel overwhelmed about how many gifts I had to buy, which is why I cut that list to the bare minimum. I don’t even give gifts to most of my friends. Don’t get me wrong, I love my friends, but I love me more. And shopping for so many people drives me crazy, so I refuse to do it.

Last year, a friend of mine gave me cookies she baked. Brilliant! They were delicious, low cost, low stress—a perfect gift for both the giver and the receiver. I just wish I could bake to be able to give people cookies (maybe I can buy them and tell people I baked them? Never mind, they’ll know I’m lying).

If you insist on giving gifts to a lot of people then give them something that is easy for you to do, inexpensive and that you find enjoyable. Remember, giving experiences (and food) is better than giving things that people might not even like or use.

Shop Early

It’s not that I hate people; I just hate shopping with them. This is why I do most of my holiday shopping in October. I’ve done this for years and it’s the best thing I’ve done for my mental health. This is the reason I’m sharing this blog post now, so you can get shopping!

Black Friday: not worth it (saving money is not worth investing so much time and energy)! Shopping on Thanksgiving night: not worth it and it’s something I don’t feel like supporting because it means that those store employees don’t get to spend Thanksgiving with their family. If you’re dying to shop on Black Friday, shop online: save money, conserve your sanity.

Over to you: what do you do to be stress-free during the holidays? Tell me on Instagram.

If you know you’ll need more energy for the holiday season make sure to grab my FREE guide Nutrition For Energy, where I show you how to use food and nutrients to boost your energy naturally. To get it just enter your name and email below.