Our 2023 Holiday Survival Toolkit offers a variety of resources and tips to help you have as happy, healthy, and stress-free a holiday as possible.
Thanksgiving is just around the corner and it kicks off a busy season full of holidays, from Hanukah and Christmas to New Year’s and Kwanzaa. The upside? For many, it’s a time of festivity, family, and happiness. The downside? Holidays can be costly and stressful. There’s also a lot of external pressure tempting us to overeat, over drink, overspend, and under-sleep. Plus, many people have personal circumstances that make the season particularly painful – those who mourn for a loved one, those who are separated from family and friends, or those who struggle with depression, for just a few examples. There are a host of other reasons why people might not feel festive, yet may feel increasingly isolated due to the celebrations going on around them.
Whether you are team festive or team Grinch, we’ve compiled our 2023 Holiday Survival Toolkit to offer resources, tips, and tools to help you navigate the season’s many challenges. We’ve kept some prior links to resources that we think are helpful, but we’ve added a lot of new tools, too. Note: While we’ve aimed for free and accessible resources, some links may require registration.
We remind our Members that your EAP is available 24-7-365 for help with any difficulties you may experience. Call for counseling or coaching to deal with grief, stress, maintaining health and fitness, coping with budgets and finances, family and relationship dynamics, and more!
Budgeting & managing money
- Avoid these budget-busting holiday spending traps
- Unwrapping the truth: Parents navigating financial hardship during the holiday season
- Plan Early for a Debt-Free Holiday Season!
- ‘I’m a Financial Planner, and Here’s How I’m Preparing for Holiday Spending Amid Inflation’
- Holiday Budget Planner – Calculator
- Credit Card Payoff Calculator
- How to Budget for the Holidays
- Debt “don’ts” for the holiday season
- 6 Best Retail Comparison Shopping Engines & Sites to Find the Best Price
- 35 ways to save money and time during the holidays
- Smart Ways to Handle Holiday Credit Card Spending
- 5 Credit Card Benefits You May Not Know About
- Do’s and Don’ts of Using Credit Cards During the Holidays
- 5 Tips to Avoid the Holiday Credit Card Trap
- Happy holidays! Shopping tips from the FTC
- Everyone You Should Remember to Tip Over the Holidays (and How Much to Give)
Managing stress & mental health
- How to Make the Holidays Less Stressful
- How to avoid overdoing it this holiday season
- When You Don’t Love the Season
- McLean’s Guide to Managing Mental Health Around the Holidays
- Holidays don’t have to be synonymous with excess stress. It’s time to reframe your thinking
- Managing the Seemingly Inevitable Holiday Season Stress
- Stressed During the Holidays? There’s an Exercise for That.
- Surviving Painful Holiday Emotions
- 19 Female Leaders on Saying No to Holiday Stress
- Coping with the super-stress season
- Seasonal Survival Tips
- 5 Ways to Cope With Depression During the Holiday Season
- Down in the doldrums? It might be Seasonal Affective Disorder (S.A.D.)
- Seasonal Affective Disorder (S.A.D.)
Staying healthy & well
- Your 2023 Holiday Season Guide to COVID-19, Flu, and RSV
- Take Steps to Help You Stay Healthy During the Holidays
- This Holiday Season Is a Great Time to Focus on Health
- National Flu Activity Tracker
- Healthy Holiday Tips for People With Diabetes
- This Is How I Navigate a Healthy Diabetes-Friendly Diet During the Holidays
- How Many Calories Are in Thanksgiving Dinner?
- How to Avoid Overeating During the Holidays
- How to enjoy the flavors of the season without derailing health
- Healthy Eating Tips and Light Party Recipes for the Holidays
- The Vegan Holiday Feast Even Meat Eaters Will Love
- How to Stay Active and Exercise During the Holidays
- How to fit in some fitness amid the holiday hustle
- Avoid a Holiday Health Crisis
- 10 Tips for Coping with Eating-Disorder Stress Over the Holidays
- How to Celebrate Holidays Through Disordered Eating Recovery
Keeping a Sober Season
- 7 Dos and Don’ts of Celebrating With Sober (and Not Drinking) Friends This Holiday Season
- How to Stay Sober During the Holiday Season
- 17 Tips for a Sober Thanksgiving
- Normalize not drinking: Embrace sober, alcohol-free fun this holiday
- Why Are the Holidays So Hard for Those in Recovery? A sober holiday survival guide
- 7 People on How They Handled Their First Sober Holiday
- Managing Holiday Parties as a Sober Introvert
- Happy Sober Holidays – How to survive the festivities without drinking
- Tips for Protecting Your Sobriety during the Holidays and Preventing Relapse
- The Holidays: Challenges and Survival Guide for Sober Alcoholics
- How to Cope with Family Holiday Events… Without Alcohol!
- Addiction during the holidays: Recovered or not, it’s important to be prepared
Family Matters
- Visiting Your Family This Holiday Season? Learn How To Navigate Tough Topics and Diffuse Family Fights, From Psychologists and Therapists
- Tips for Preventing Inter-Personal Conflict During the Holidays
- When and how to engage constructively in family arguments during the holidays
- How to Avoid Family Feuds During the Holidays
- If Your Family Fights About Politics, Here’s How to Avoid a Big Blowup Over the Holidays
- How to Survive Political Conversations Over the Holidays
- 5 Ways to Survive Your Next Family Gathering
- 5 tips for celebrating the holidays with a blended family
- Blended Family and Step-Parenting Tips
- Celebrating the Holidays as a Blended Family
- Sandwich Generation: Don’t Forget About Your Mental Health
- 10 Tips for Caregivers During the Holidays
- Caring for an aging parent? Tips for enjoying holiday meals
- How to Handle Holiday (Military) Separations
- Dear Therapist: I Don’t Want to See My Mom This Christmas
- How to tell your family you are not coming home for the holidays
- Estranged at the Holidays? 8 Strategies to Get Through
- How to grieve estranged family and friends during the holidays
Holidays after a divorce
- Tips for Managing the Holidays During and After Divorce
- Holidays Are Tough After a Divorce. Here’s How I Learned to Prepare.
- Top Ten Ways to Survive the Holidays During and After Divorce
- Divorce and Holidays: How to Help Kids
- How divorced parents can help their children survive the holidays
- Planning for Seasonal Success: Holiday Tips for Parenting Apart
- Children of Divorce List Holiday Dos and Don’ts
Handling special situations
- Managing Grief During the Most Wonderful Time of Year
- Grief and loss throughout the holiday season
- Grief and the holidays
- Holidays After the Death of a Loved One
- Helping Someone Who’s Grieving
- At The Holidays: Coping with Anticipatory Grief
- Coping with Loneliness During the Holidays
- Coping With A Loved Ones’ Eating Disorder During the Holidays
- 16 Tips for Enjoying the Holidays With an Autistic Child
- 5 Tips for a Sensory-Friendly Thanksgiving
- How to Reduce Holiday Stress for Your Child With Autism
- Holiday Tips for Caregivers 2023
- The Holidays and Alzheimer’s
- Staying Safe and Joyful: Tips for a Dementia-Friendly Holiday Celebration
Navigating holidays at the workplace
- Surviving the Holidays at Work When You Dread the Season
- The do’s and don’ts of giving holiday gifts to your co-workers
- 11 Tips for Surviving the Office Holiday Party
- How to Make Holiday Celebrations More Inclusive
- Holidays Can Be Stressful. They Don’t Have to Stress Out Your Team.
Keeping safe
- Enjoy a Safe Holiday Season
- Thanksgiving Home Fire Safety
- Top 12 Holiday Decorating Safety Tips
- 2 tips for safer holiday home decorating
- The Most Dangerous Toys Under Your Christmas Tree in 2023
- W.A.T.C.H. Toy Safety
- 5 Dangerous Products Parents Should Avoid to Keep Their Kids Safe
- Food Safety
- Keep Food Poisoning Off the Menu
- ‘Tis the season: Party hosts should be aware of liability issues
- Holiday Safety Tips for Your Pets
Maintaining cyber security & avoiding scams
- BBB Tip: Shop safe and shop smart this holiday season
- Porch Pirates Won’t Quit. How Can You Stop Them From Stealing Your Holiday Cheer?
- Tis the season for holiday scams
- 6 Tips to Avoid Holiday Scams and Protect Your Identity in 2023
- Don’t Let a Scam Derail Your Holiday Travel
- Stay Safe from Online Threats When Holiday Shopping
- Pass It On – FTC Info for consumers on common scams and fraud
Holiday travel
- AAA’s 2023 Thanksgiving Travel Forecast
- TSA is prepared for more travelers at airport security checkpoints, expects this holiday travel season to be the busiest ever
- Google Maps trends for holiday traveling, shopping and more
- Carry-On Luggage Rules: Everything You Can (and Can’t) Bring With You on a Plane
- Travel scams target passengers posting to social media about cancellations
- Tips to Stay Active While Traveling for the Holidays
Keeping the holidays green
- Ready to Green Your Holiday Celebrations? Use This Sustainable and Climate-Conscious Guide
- Sustainable Holidays
- The Ultimate Guide to a Sustainable Holiday Season
- Sustainable Holidays: 15 Ways to Have an Eco-Friendly Christmas
- 38 Best Eco-Friendly and Sustainable Gifts
- 12 Ways to Have an Eco Friendly Holiday
- Go Green for the Holidays
Giving charitable gifts and donations