Christmas is a holiday we all look forward to, but it also stresses us to an extend. As much as we look forward to the season of giving and gathering with loved ones, we also need to invest a lot of time to prepare for the celebration. From gift shopping to cleaning up the house and worrying about budget, there is a lot of planning involved.
 
Most of us have a routine for Christmas. Some of us gift shop a month before Christmas while some of us would only shop a week before Christmas because of the discounted prices and on the day of Christmas, either we would visit a loved ones’ house, or we would be the one hosting everyone at our place!
 
However, something is different this year. We have not been able to gather with our extended family members or friends in big groups for a few months now. This Christmas is going to be no different. With community cases still occurring, we cannot risk having more cases. And this could be a different type of stress. Although it may seem that we would not have to buy so many gifts, prepare a lot of food or clean the house as much as we used to, we will feel that something is missing this year. Christmas gives us the opportunity to catch up with others, eat good food and receive presents. This Christmas, houses may not be very noisy, we may not be getting a lot of presents and we may feel stressed because of the change.
 
But, we should not let this change affect our Christmas spirit! This Christmas let’s do things a little differently. Let’s find something to focus on so that we do not feel the loss or difference! We could do activities by ourselves or with our families to help us live in the moment and create memories. For example, we could bake Christmas cookies with our families, plan a list of movies to watch together and create a unique ambience with candles or fairy lights or simply play a variety of board games. This would encourage us to look at things from a different perspective. While we may not be able to control the virus situation, we can control the action we take to make each moment better. It may not be the perfect moment we wished for, but, we are still able to create memories and enjoy them.

Merry Christmas everyone!