November is reaching its end and we all know what that means… Christmas – and December – is almost here, with all the joy and stress that comes with this time of the year!
To make your Christmas a little easier and increasing your possibilities of really having a wonderful time of peace, sharing and happiness, we leave you a few tips to survive and take the most of the final part of the year:
Buy a Christmas calendar
It’s a scientific fact: chocolate brings happiness. So, to relax from the stress that all the family parties may bring, buy yourself a Christmas calendar, one of those with a little chocolate for each day. It’s certain that, at least for a few moments, you’ll feel lighter and more relaxed!
Decorate your house while listening to Christmas songs
With the crazy rhythm of everyday life, we all know how hard it can be to enter the real Christmas spirit. One way to avoid reaching Christmas time with absolutely no spirit may be by decorating the house right in the start of the month, with Christmas songs as sound track. Painting your house with small red and green details, while listening to season classics like “Jingle Bell” or “Last Christmas I gave you my heart”, is a right way to dive into the holiday, for sure!
Make a list of the presents you have to buy and buy them with time
This one is obvious, but it’s perhaps the one we miss the most. How many of us think every single Christmas “Next year I’ll buy everything with lots of time!” and then, well, just don’t do it, year after year? This Christmas, make yourself do it! Sit down, make a list of the people you want (or have) to buy a gift for and think about possibilities of presents for each one. Next, run to the shopping center or the city’s center to dodge the big crowds and lines of Christmas shopping that add more wrinkles to us every year due to the stress they cause.
Plan the festivities ahead
To avoid an annoying Christmas, the key-word is definitely planning. Book on your calendar all of your Christmas parties so that none of them happen at the same time and make you constantly running around. If you are having a party at home, plan everything down to what you’re cooking, who you’re inviting, etc… Planning is sure to save you a lot of trouble!
Make a small diet before the holidays
Everyone knows, no one denies it: Christmas is a time for going overboard. Especially when it comes to food. It’s the codfish, the octopus, the turkey and ‘roupa velha’, it’s ‘rabanadas’, ‘bolo-rei’, ‘aletria’ and ‘mexidos’. It’s impossible to resist to so many delicious dishes! So, in the weeks before Christmas, make a small diet and let yourself go crazy later, without such a large weight in your conscience and scale.
