How to Ruin a Perfectly Good Family Christmas Holiday

It's not hard to create a perfect family Christmas. It's just so darned easy to ruin it.

GAITHERSBURG, MD (PRWEB) December 10, 2005 -- Want your Christmas holiday to be perfect? It's a fairly simple recipe. Take six parts high expectations, two parts media and social pressure, four parts good intentions, tons of hard work, and a heaping plateful of exhaustion, and you end up with, uh, well, disaster.

"It's not that having the perfect Christmas holiday is so difficult, it's just that it's so easy to ruin it," says Stephanie Gallagher, a.k.a., 'The Shopping Mom,' whose books and web site (http://www.gifts-babies-love.com)are designed to help families save time and money on gift-buying.

Here are her top four ways to ruin a perfectly good family Christmas:

1) Expect your annoying relatives to suddenly change and become normal people you'd want to see on a regular basis, even if you weren't related to them.

This is probably the biggest stressor for families.

"They travel great distances to see relatives and spent lots of money on gifts trying to please them, all while imagining being greeted by a scene out of 'It's a Wonderful Life,'" Gallagher says. "Then they get there, and they're greeted by something out of 'A Series of Unfortunate Events.' It's a huge disappointment."

2. Try to make a perfect gourmet dinner with no experience.

"I don't know why moms who've previously never set foot in their kitchens the whole year except to find the takeout menus, are suddenly overcome with a desire to become Martha Stewart around Christmas time. But plenty of them are, and in so doing, they drive everyone around them crazy," Gallagher says.

Instead, she recommends having a pot luck for your Christmas or holiday dinner. "That way, everyone can share the success -- and the blame," she says.

3. Give gifts you think your friends and relatives should want, even if they don't.

Gift-giving is hugely stressful for families, because they spend tons of money and oodles of time buying gifts.

"But with all that effort, they often overlook what their recipients really want. Instead they buy what they think they should want," says Gallagher.

Instead, she recommends going with items relatives have specifically requested, gift cards to their favorite stores, or homemade Christmas or holiday gifts with sentimental value -- if it's something you enjoy doing.

4. Being a bad receiver.

You spend so much time doing things to prepare for the Christmas holiday, you want it all to pay off. Then when someone gives you a gift you don't want or don't like, you're frustrated, and you silently vow to return it. Or even worse, you act ungrateful.

"Knowing how to receive is just as important as knowing how to give," Gallagher says. "Every gift should be received with a genuine, heartfelt, 'Thank you for thinking of me.' Even if the person put little thought or effort into your gift, your graciousness will make both of you feel better in the long run."

For more great gift advice, including great gift ideas for the Christmas holiday, check out The Shopping Mom's Guide to Baby Gifts at http://www.gifts-babies-love.com

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