I hope that you're not too stressed with the holiday preparations. I've been taking some of my advice this year...because not much is ready here 😁
10 strategies for surviving the holidays
Do you want to know the secret to surviving the holidays? These are my suggestions. I’m not an expert – except that I have managed to survive 58 of them so far…
BTW I can’t be held responsible if others in your family don’t approve of these great innovative ideas!
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| Survive and maybe even enjoy the holidays! |
1. HIBERNATE!
This is by far my favourite idea! Hide out in your quilting studio and don’t come out till the holidays are over – or better yet, when spring is in the air, your bulbs are peaking through the snow and the birds are back!
If you just can’t swing this, negotiate at least one day (or a few hours over a few days) to yourself, in your quilting studio during the holidays. Hopefully that will be enough to energize you for a while.
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| Hibernate in your studio...for the holidays or for the entire winter 😊 |
2. Gift giving - Online shopping
I know....we should be finished by now...but not a chance!
We’ve all become experts on doing online shopping. It doesn’t mean that we don’t love our local quilt shop, it just means that we have expanded our horizons! The perfect time for online shopping is when all is quiet in the house! If you can’t get to the store across the city during the day, shop online and have it delivered…and if you spent lots and lots of money, they’ll deliver it for free!
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| Pamper yourself, or others, online |
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| You can even buy locally online |
3. Gift giving - Quilted gifts
I can hear you wondering how this is going to help you survive the holidays since this is possibly one of your major holiday stressors. My innovative idea – give the hardest to-shop-for person a quilty IOU. In a Christmas card or on a large gift tag, write down what their quilted gift will be (keep it general, small and realistic – they may actually expect you to deliver on this!) Then you can shop the Boxing Day sales from the comfort of your home, buy some yummy fabrics for you and to make the gift!
This year, I am following this idea, sort of....I managed to make 2 Christmas placemats but only one of them got quilted before my son and his girlfriend left for the holidays....so I wrapped the one that was done, and will quilt the other one and send my son a picture of it so that he can share it with her 😊 on Christmas day. I can have it FMQ before Christmas, but not before they left this morning!
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| The one left to quilt! 😀 |
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| The finished one 😊 |
Here are some great gift ideas that could easily be delivered later....after Christmas!
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| Make a set of microwave bowl holders |
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| Quilted baskets are a great gift and don't need to be Christmas themed |
4. Gift giving – Support local crafters, artists and companies
An alternative is to support local quilters. artists or specialty food companies, either online, in stores or through crafts shows. I know of several quilters who have Etsy shops with incredibly well made and reasonably priced quilted gifts and textile art. Don’t procrastinate though cause you’re going to run out of time!
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| Buy from local quilters on Etsy! |
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| Cheesecakery Bakery - locally made cheesecakes in a jar 😋 Yum! |
5. Decorating
Take out all of your Christmas quilts, runners and wall hangings and call the house decorated! If you really must have a tree, get two or three of your grandchildren, nieces and nephews, or neighbour's kids to help decorate the tree. Have them decorate your tree, then feed them holiday sweets and send them home before the sugar rush sets in!
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| Take out the Christmas quilts! |
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| Take out your home-made holiday decorations |
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| If the tree really needs to go up, |
6a. Cooking – get invited
Get yourself invited for Christmas dinner somewhere, pick up an amazing desert at your favourite local bakery and a bottle of wine. If you can’t pull this one off, consider cooking less. There are great places that make excellent food that you could buy for parts of your meal.
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| Buy some locally made food to give or for parts of your meal |
6b. Cooking - Try out your festive meal ahead of time
Make sure that the meal that you’re planning for Christmas dinner only includes recipes that you’ve tried before. This year, we practiced our dinner twice on company – so the third time will be a breeze!
If you’re having people over, when they ask you what they can bring, instead of saying “Oh, don’t worry about it”, seriously consider letting them contribute. If they are really good at making something, give them the pleasure of making and sharing it with everyone.
7. Sleep in
Even if you can't sleep in every day, give yourself permission to sleep in at least on one or two days. If you're the type of person who wakes up at 6 am every day, consider getting up to make a coffee and then going back to bed with a great book. Give yourself permission to rest :-)
This Christmas we are dog-sitting my brother's two small dogs. They wake up early but once they've done their business and gotten their treat, they don't mind taking a nap 😊
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| Twix and Taffy going back to sleep! |
8. Pamper yourself
What is the one thing that you haven't done in ages that you used to love to do, before kids, work and responsibilities? It could be singing your heart out, dancing, going out with friends for a cup of coffee or tea or maybe even giving yourself a manicure (or better still getting someone else to give you one!) Take the time this holiday season to do something that makes you happy or makes you laugh. You deserve it!
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| Take it easy and enjoy the holidays! |
9. Reach out
The holiday season can be very difficult for people who are grieving or who are lonely. If you can, take some time out of your holiday to call or visit someone who could really use a friend.
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| Visit those who are lonely or grieving |
10. Gratitude
No matter how busy or stressed this holiday season gets, remember that you are blessed with all kinds of wonderful people around you. You are also blessed with this amazing art that makes your soul sing! Be grateful for all that you have.
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Gratitude makes everything better :-) |
I wish you all a Christmas / Holiday season filled with love, joy, fun and peace.
Thanks so much for sharing this quilting journey with me. It means a lot to me 😊
Love, Andrée
- Original posts
- 8 strategies for surviving the holidays with Free Motion Mavericks, December 19, 2019
- 7 Ways to Survive the Holidays, December 23, 2016
- Sandra of mmm quilts on Etsy
- Cheesecakery Bakery
- Superior Threads
