15/12/2025
Many clients have cited Christmas stress as their reason for seeking help this month.
I completely understand—Christmas can be tough both mentally and financially. As a child of divorce, I spent years splitting Christmases between parents, and when I had a boyfriend, another family joined the mix. It was stressful!
After my stepfather died, I chose to spend Christmas with Mum so she wouldn’t be alone. This was the start of reducing my own stress—I set boundaries and started saying no, using Mum as my reason. It made things easier.
Later, when we had our daughter, we put another boundary in place: instead of travelling to everyone, we invited people to come to us. We felt we’d paid our dues. Creating a stress-free Christmas took years, but it started with boundaries—and sticking to them.
Financially, I follow Martin Lewis’s advice: if you can’t afford it, don’t do it! The pressure for the latest gadgets or clothes comes from outside, but you can create pain-free traditions.
Take the elf, for example—either don’t buy one, or keep it simple. Move it around the house and let that be its magic. Christmas dinner can be reframed too: share the cooking or skip the big meal and have a picky lunch instead.
If Christmas is about togetherness, the rest doesn’t matter. If you’re still stressed, ask yourself why and who you’re doing it for. If it’s for you and your kids, why make it stressful? Take time to reflect and set boundaries for next year.
Rome wasn’t built in a day, but over time you can create a stress-free Christmas for yourself.
Hope this helps and you know where I am for a treatment in the meantime.
Love
Denise
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