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Holiday Season. Part 1

© Marilyn Robb

The Holiday Season. Part 1

The holiday season is upon us once again. For the next month at least there will be many things needing our attention and disrupting our regular lives. For most, the holiday season is one of joy, peace, family spirit, friendship, giving, sense of caring, etc. But for others this year in particular will be different and difficult. There may be a great sense of loss of loved ones and/or financial hardships. In addition, the holiday season has always been a time when parents in particular need help with making the time enjoyable for the children. Gift-giving ,while it has very good intents and purposes could also be stressful in some ways.

On any list of stress factors complied, Christmas/ holiday season always features high on the list. In order for the sweet to outweigh the bitter, many suggestions and ideas for help have been offered. I thought it best rather than me trying to re-write what has already been written so well, that I would just provide some help in finding the right kind of information and helpful suggestions that you may need to make the holidays as stressless as possible. So I have scoured the internet; I have checked my favourite parenting and education sites, and other sites to see what is offered. In this and Part 2 hopefully you will find all the help you need. I list some of the sites and a bit of what they offer. Readers feel free to add your own so that everyone can share.

http://www.family.go.com This site has : a) a gift centre. You can choose gifts either to buy or to make. It has instructions for making simple gifts. B)An article. “Invasion of the holiday guests” with tips for handling a houseful of guests. C) One of the Q&As on the expert advice section is how to celebrate when money is tight. D) a board for sharing ideas. You may learn some things from others here that you yourself never thought of.

http://kidsource.com This is a great site for a lot of safety tips for the holidays. Just put “holiday stress” in the search or put “how to help kids cope with the holidays?” This is will lead to an extensive list of articles.

http://helping.apa.org/family/holiday/ht... is another good article from the American Psychological Association (Family and Relationships section) on coping with holiday stress.

http://www.nncc.org/curriculum/sac/2_hol... This article is from the National Network for Child Care entitled “Holiday stress and divorced families”. It is particularly for helping children in single parent and step-family homes.