It's easy to get overly stressed during holiday season. With shopping, cooking, decorating and entertaining, things get hectic quickly. Here are six tips to help you de-stress your holidays!



1. Get together with those people with whom you exchange gifts and steadfastly agree on a preset spending limit per person. Promise to stick to it.

2. Or, instead of giving each other gifts this year, each of you make a charitable donation in the other person's name to an organization that calls to your heart.

3. Don't try to do all the cooking yourself for your holiday dinner. It's more fun and less stress when you ask your guests to contribute something special to the meal. They will feel needed and you'll get a break!

4. Be aware of your sugar intake through the holidays. Increased sugar levels can make you depressed and bloated. Try to avoid as many holiday treats as you can, so you don't end up stressing over potential weight-gain on January first.

5. Give up the Perfect Holiday Myth. Nothing is ever perfect, so stop worrying about things that don't matter. Believe it or not, nobody really cares if the decorations are sparse, the wine isn't cold enough, or the pie crust is a little overdone. It's the company that counts.

6. Teach children the value of one or two gifts. Kids don't need dozens of gifts to be happy, and there is no time like the present to begin fostering that belief in them. By lavishing children with several gifts every holiday season, adults actually ?train? kids to expect a lot. Start a new tradition this year with your kids and let them know that the real value of the holidays is to be together with the people you love.