When it comes to the joy and the stress of the holidays, how do you and your spouse approach it? As a united team? Or do tinsel, gift giving, and extended family get-togethers turn you against each other? Ashleigh Slater, author of Team Us: Marriage Together, offers her tips on how parents can face the holidays together as a team.
Set Expectations Together
As a couple, what do you want this holiday season to be like? It could be you prefer relaxed and simple. Or perhaps you enjoy lots of traditions and activity. Take the time to talk about this in advance and determine together what your holiday expectations are as a couple. This can include how much you’ll spend on gifts, where you’ll celebrate, and even what’s on the menu. For some husbands and wives, it may be easy to agree. For others though, it’ll mean being willing to compromise in order to find a happy medium.
Spend Dedicated Time Alone As A Couple
In the craziness of the holidays, make a plan to spend time together. Schedule date nights in advance and then stick to them. Be committed to them just like you would an office party or an extended family dinner. Time together will make sure that you stay connected in the hustle and bustle of the season.
Serve Others
The holidays offer a lot of opportunities to pour your energy and resources into others. Whether it’s serving food at a shelter, caroling at a nursing home, volunteering at a church service, or shopping for gifts for Angel Tree, Toys for Tots, or Operation Christmas Child, determine to do so together. Spending time hand-in-hand giving to others not only benefits your community, but creates life-long shared memories.
Don’t Forget To Dream
Dreaming together allows you to create a shared narrative. To continue to pen together your story. The holidays, even prior to New Year’s Day, are a perfect time to sip hot chocolate or eggnog and brainstorm together about what’s next for you as a couple. Talk about what long-held dreams you want to accomplish or items you could check off your shared bucket list. Dreaming together helps you not lose sight of the big picture in the midst of holiday stress.
Learn How To Handle Conflict
Holidays can be breeding grounds for conflict. Whether it’s disagreements between the two of your or conflict among extended family. Make a choice to approach conflict with an “us against the problem” attitude rather than a “me vs. you”mentality. Determine to face conflict with the long-term health of your relationship as the goal.
This holiday season, choose to approach the tinsel, gift giving, and extended family get-togethers as a united team. You may just discover it truly is the most wonderful time of the year.