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Wellness > Mental Health

5 Ways To Unwrap Holiday Stress

Updated Published
The opinions expressed in this article are the writer’s own and do not reflect the views of Her Campus.
This article is written by a student writer from the Her Campus at Bradley U chapter.

Happy Holidays! Welcome to the season of cold toes, warm hearts and lots of panic.

Things to buy, gifts to wrap, food to make, halls to deck and overall a lot to do. It gets stressful, but stress isn’t what the holidays are about.

So our challenge is learning to breathe when everything is flurying.

The holiday stress is manageable! Find ways to bring yourself back to the season of joy. Here are some of my suggestions.

Bake some awful desserts

They don’t have to look pretty, just throw some flour around and taste the sugar. Stop worrying about it being perfect and just make it for the experience. Make some food that is just for you.

Gifts = Retail Therapy

Gifting is supposed to be fun! I know it is easy to get into a money mindset. However, the great thing about a gift exchange is that you practically get your money back in the form of something you were waiting to buy. If you are worried about friends and family not meeting the mark when reciprocating gifts, use a wishlist platform like Elfster to make everything smoother.

Admit it, it is fun to splurge money sometimes, and the holidays are the perfect excuse.

Decorate what matters

Stop caring about your decorations being “perfect.” Decorate the areas of your living space that you spend the most time in. Decorate them with the things that make you smile, no matter how big or small.

The season will end soon anyway, only decorate what is worth it.

Gift wrapping is an art

Wrapping gifts can be hard, and it takes a while. I like to turn on a good Christmas movie and set aside a couple of hours to just wrap and watch. Make it fun.

Spa day

There are a lot of Christmas spa products out there. So, decide if you would rather smell like a candy cane or a gingerbread house. Just make a night of it.

Take some time for yourself to remember what the holidays are really about. It will be over soon, so enjoy the season while it’s here.

Happy Holidays everyone!

Jessica (or Jessie) is a Sophomore at Bradley University, majoring in Advertising/Public Relations and User Experience Design with a minor in Creative Writing. Jessie helps as the co-social media coordinator for Bradley U's Chapter of Her Campus. She loves being involved as the Bradley Speech Team's PR Chair, an Assistant Residential Advisor, the Bradley Scout's Social Media Manager, and more! When not running around loving her busy schedule: she enjoys reading a good fiction book, biking, sudoku, creating fake websites and flyers, and doing various little craft projects. Jessie is passionate about the power of communication and loves to write - hopefully you like to read! :)