20. Holiday Hangover

Mom on the Fringe

Do you ever get "Holiday Hangover"? I'm not referring to the type of hangover you get from drinking too much, but the kind of hangover you get from trying to make the holidays a wonderful experience for your family and waking up the next day feeling depleted and run down. After several Christmases and Easters where I felt like my health was suffering from trying so hard, and our bank account was suffering from spending too much, I decided to pull back on my holiday expectations and keep things as simple as possible. This year, for Easter, I didn’t buy all the home decor or go shopping for Easter outfits for the kids. We didn’t go to umpteen different Easter egg hunts in our community or even buy much candy. We tried to keep it as simple as possible. And guess what? I’m still exhausted (ha!), but I feel like this past week of reading about the meaning of Easter and spending time together was so much more memorable than any other holiday before. Our kids complained a little bit about the fact that they didn’t get an endless supply of candy in their Easter baskets, but it wasn’t as bad as I would have expected. We spent more time talking about the meaning of Easter than what was in it for them. They are still kids and still wished for more, but we just kept repeating what it was about and they eventually caught on. But, I come to you today tired. Depleted. Not really able to form a complete sentence anyway. Why? Because even when it’s simple, it’s still a lot to pull off. And every year, no matter how much or how little I do, I need to decompress from it all. How do you deal with holidays? Do you experience holiday hangover? What are some ways you cope so that it doesn’t feel like it’s lost its meaning or that you need to take a long vacation afterwards? I’d love to hear from you! When you listen to this episode, I’d love to hear comments on our Facebook page under the post or you can email me at [e-mail]. Stay tuned for the next episode of Mom on the Fringe! So glad you're here! You can find me and more information about Mom on the Fringe at my website, as well as Facebook and Instagram. Also, if you haven't yet, please jump over to iTunes, SUBSCRIBE to this podcast and leave me a rating and review! It would mean so much to me, and it would really propel this podcast and get the message out to others! Thanks for listening! xo, Amy