A quick search on Twitter for “holiday stress” gave me about 2000 results (my favorite: RT @BaskinRobbins: Retweet this if your remedy for holiday stress is ice cream! – I expect an avalanche of tweets). 18 new tweets on stress came in just as I wrote this article. I thought I was doing really well until some wonderful other driver cut me off. I suddenly became French. I have to say, though I love the Bay Area most of the year, the holiday season here is pretty stressed. Road rage at Trader Joe’s? It can happen. I’m not talking about the parking lot; I’m talking about inside the store.

Listen to Your Sugar Cookie Mama
According to the very calm and sane holiday shopper and finance expert Manisha Thakor (Sugar Mamma Chronicles), you can keep your head during the season with her 1-2-3 approach: 1) Set a shopping strategy & a specific dollar amount, 2) Measure your progress, and 3) Don’t be afraid to think out of the holiday box. Still all sugared out? SVB at Digerati Life offers her 5 ways to beat stress in her article, 5 Ways To Deal With Holiday Stress & Battle The Christmas Blues.

My take? 1) Buy only one thing per person on your list, 2) Eat Chinese. Normally, the frugalite in me says, don’t eat out. But if it means the difference between losing it and not, I say do it, 3) plan a hike or something outdoors on Christmas day, so that the present-opening part is only a small part of the day.

Remember, it’s lovely weather for a sleigh ride with you. Nice and rosy and comfy-cozy are we – here in the Bay Area where the lines make you want to scream for ice cream – and in malls all across the U.S. Keep cool if you can. And if you can’t – there’s the #newnormal of Christmas shopping with no driving… buying and tracking your Amazon/other online packages from the comfort of your man/woman cave.

photo credits: Morguefile

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