How to Make this Christmas Season Less Stressful (and Better than Ever)

If positioning your elf is fun and enjoyable for the whole family then, by all means, continue the fun tradition; but if you are constantly having anxiety over your little elf, I have a solution that might work for you and has certainly worked for us. Have your elf write your kiddos a note explaining that he or she needs to go spend time with family since that really is at the heart of the Christmas season.  If you and your kids still desire the wonder and magic of the elf to continue, you can have an “invisible elf” that leaves little gifts in a small sleigh each morning for the kiddos, twelve days before Christmas.  My super-creative mom did something like this for my sister and me when we were little, and we loved it.  There was no elf to position, but there was the excitement of knowing that a cute pair of socks, legos, DVD, chore coupons, or nail polish might be waiting for us in the little sleigh each morning on each of the twelve days before Christmas.

Speaking of gifts, those little boogers can sure get out of hand as well. And, here’s how…