Reducing festive freak out this year

What's got everyone's mistletoe in a bunch?

STRESS LESS: Why do we spend so much time and money in our annual Christmas frenzy when we should simply be enjoying the time spent together? . Picture: contributed

THESE days, the entire month of December is basically just one big social event.    

From dance concerts to club awards nights and breakups to school graduations and work Christmas parties, it's enough to make an introvert want to roll up in a doona and retreat to the bedroom to watch Buffy re-runs until Australia Day.  

I've never understood why people become so frazzled the minute the first of December rolls around each year.   

It's like the second we start seeing the Lions Christmas cakes around town, we start to go into some sort of spending frenzy.   

I suppose a lot of this comes from the human inclination to keep up with the Joneses.   

We all want our neighbours (and 800 of our closest social media followers) to see what a wonderful jolly holiday we're having... not to mention our brand new Apple Watch and Tiffany pendent from Mummy and Daddy.

No one posts about the Christmas Eve meltdown they had when they lost the fight with the curling ribbon and the sticky tape dispenser or the time Uncle Jim fell off the roof madly trying to get the fluorescent nativity scene up.

In a bid to make our family Christmas a little less stress for everyone this year I'm urging my family to put down the wrapping paper and pick up a cold one and take the festive frazzle down a notch.  

Instead of spending time unwrapping gifts, why not purchase a great family friendly board game the whole clan can get in on?    

This way you're making memories that will long outlive another pack of socks and jocks, no matter how long Dad thinks he can keep flogging them.   

In the lead up to this Christmas, I'm taking a step back by gifting my loved ones with cute recycled Moconna coffee jars filled with home made baking instead of maxing out the plastic card on gifts they really don't want or need.

I'm happy because I can save money for the overseas holiday we will probably never take and my boyfriend is happy because it means we can finally get rid of my enormous collection of jars I never got around to using for kombucha brewing.   

And if that plan fails, well, no one's ever cracked a wobbly about receiving a Lions Christmas cake, right?