How To Survive Christmas With Your Family Without Having A Meltdown

Christmas is coming, so you know what that means: family drama coming right up! Whether it’s your parents bombarding you with questions on why you haven’t found a boyfriend yet or your rude aunt telling you that you’re “certainly looking a lot… healthier these days,” you need a method to fighting the madness. Here are some tips for making it through relatively unscathed.

  1. Have a drink… or six. I mean, I’m not recommending you get super sloppy drunk to the point where you start angrily slurring at everyone or ugly crying in your parents’ bathroom, but a glass of wine or a gin and tonic or two could be just the thing to dull your nerves and activate your “IDGAF” factor.
  2. Be a master of conversation. Whenever anyone in your family tries to turn the conversational tables on you in a way that you don’t want to deal with, steer things right back in their direction by talking about something totally different. Ask them about their pets or what they’re doing at school or how Great Aunt Edna is getting on at the nursing home. They’ll forget all about your stuff… for the time being.
  3. Organize an escape route. If you know that your family members are Nightmare Central, go in with a game plan to get out. Whether that’s making plans with a friend or boyfriend for Christmas evening after you’ve had a family dinner or even lying and saying you have plans when you really don’t, it’s good to know there’s a light at the end of the tunnel when you’ve done your time.
  4. Laugh it off. At the end of the day, families usually want what’s best for each other and they probably don’t truly mean any harm. They do say laughter is the best medicine, and that’s especially true here. Instead of getting annoyed, depressed, or enraged by your family’s zany behavior, embrace it and just learn to laugh at it. Hey, you’re lucky you even have a family, right? Some people aren’t so fortunate (even if you don’t FEEL fortunate).
  5. Indulge in some prime Christmas napping. Want to avoid obnoxious family members? Go to sleep! Not only is this a perfect way to digest all that delicious Christmas food, it means you get a blissful hour or two away from all the noise and drama. Plus, if your parents have kept your room as it was when you lived there (if you don’t still), you can get some peace and quiet in a different room. Awesome idea!
  6. Keep yourself busy stuffing your face. Again, you can’t talk (or answer any prying questions) if your mouth is always full of delicious food. Turkey or ham? Check. Cookies? Double check. There’s no time for chatting when all your time is taken up by eating. You can deal with the effects of all those excess calories later…
  7. Hang out at the kids’ table. If you can deal with kids and your cousins/other little ones present aren’t total brats, hang out with them. This way, you can successfully avoid the likely troublemakers and also get to have fun with the little ones. Kids love Christmas and are always full of joy and wonder. Maybe a little bit of that will rub off on you.
  8. Be brutally honest. If one of your family members just won’t take the hint that you don’t want to talk about certain topics, just tell them straight up. You don’t have to be rude about it, but definitely be direct and to the point. They won’t want to make things awkward by creating a scene that ruins the whole day for everyone, so they should take it on board and move on… here’s hoping.
  9. Remind yourself Christmas only comes once a year, thank God. Once this day is over, there are 364 ahead of you that are blissfully Christmas-free. Try and get through it as best you can and be glad that Christmas comes but once a year.
Jennifer Still is a writer and editor with more than 10 years of experience. The managing editor of Bolde, she has bylines in Vanity Fair, Business Insider, The New York Times, Glamour, Bon Appetit, and many more. You can follow her on Twitter @jenniferlstill
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