Avoid holiday meltdowns! Our 2024 Holiday Survival Toolkit offers a variety of resources and tips to help you have as happy, healthy, and stress-free a holiday as possible.
As the many holidays of the season approach, check out our 2024 Holiday Survival Toolkit – we hope it will help you prevent or manage any holiday meltdowns and keep things on track. We’ve added dozens of new links to resources, tips, and tools to help you navigate the season’s many challenges, and we’ve kept prior links to resources that we think are helpful. We’ll update it as the season progresses. Note: While we’ve aimed for free and accessible resources, some links may require registration.
Note to our EAP members: Help is available 24-7-365 for 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
- How to Build a Holiday Budget That Works Every Year
- What Will My Grocery Bill Be This Holiday Season?
- The Psychology of Holiday Shopping: 8 Common Traps to Avoid
- Avoid these budget-busting holiday spending traps
- BBB Tip: Shop like a pro and make the most of this holiday season
- 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’
- Credit Card Payoff Calculator
- Debt “don’ts” for the holiday season
- 6 Best Retail Comparison Shopping Engines & Sites to Find the Best Price
- 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
- The Holiday Blues: Feeling Sad Amid the Festivities
- How to Make the Holidays Less Stressful
- How to avoid overdoing it this holiday season
- Even a joyous holiday season can cause stress for most Americans
- When You Don’t Love the Season
- McLean’s Guide to Managing Mental Health Around the Holidays
- Supporting Your Mental Health During the Holiday Season
- 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
- 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
- Flu Vaccines & Respiratory Virus Guidance
- National Flu Activity Tracker
- Healthy Eating During the Holidays
- How Many Calories Are in Thanksgiving Dinner?
- Talking Turkey: Holiday Turkey Cooking Tips
- Do Not Wash Your Turkey and Other Holiday Tips to Keep Your Food Safe
- How to Avoid Overeating During the Holidays
- How to enjoy the flavors of the season without derailing health
- Healthy Holiday Tips for People With Diabetes
- Diabetes: Healthy Eating and the Holidays
- Managing Crohn’s / IBD Through the Holidays
- How to Handle Holiday Eating With Your Food Allergy Child
- 2024 Vegan Holiday Recipes
- The Vegan Holiday Feast Even Meat Eaters Will Love
- How to Cook for Someone on a Plant-Based Diet During the Holidays
- How to fit in some fitness amid the holiday hustle
- 10 Ways to Squeeze in a Workout During the Holidays
- Avoid a Holiday Health Crisis
Keeping a Sober Season
- Staying Sober And Celebrating The Holidays
- Sober Holidays: Respecting When Someone Says No to Alcohol
- Holiday Drinking: How to Know When It’s A Problem And Ways to Cut Back
- Thriving in Sobriety: Yes, You Can Enjoy Sober Holidays
- 7 Dos and Don’ts of Celebrating With Sober (and Not Drinking) Friends This Holiday Season
- How to Stay Sober During the Holiday Season
- 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
- Tips for Protecting Your Sobriety during the Holidays and Preventing Relapse
- Addiction during the holidays: Recovered or not, it’s important to be prepared
- Sober curious? We’ve got resources to help
Family Matters
- Visiting Your Family This Holiday Season? Learn How To Navigate Tough Topics and Diffuse Family Fights, From Psychologists and Therapists
- 5 Proven Ways to Avoid Family Blowups During the Holidays
- Tips for Preventing Inter-Personal Conflict During the Holidays
- When and how to engage constructively in family arguments during the holidays
- How to Survive Political Conversations Over the Holidays
- Coping with Family Dynamics During the Holidays
- Staying Positive Around Difficult Family Members
- 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
- Military: Not Home for the Holidays
- Dear Therapist: I Don’t Want to See My Mom This Christmas
- Estranged at the Holidays? 8 Strategies to Get Through
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.
- Navigating the High Holidays After Divorce Means Creating New Traditions for Families
- 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
- 5 Tips for a Sensory-Friendly Thanksgiving
- How to Reduce Holiday Stress for Your Child With Autism
- Holiday Tips for Caregivers
- The Holidays and Alzheimer’s
- Staying Safe and Joyful: Tips for a Dementia-Friendly Holiday Celebration
Navigating holidays at the workplace
- Inclusive holiday planning: how to make your workplace festivities welcoming for all
- How to Make Holiday Celebrations More Inclusive
- HR: How to add more meaning, impact to your holiday event
- Surviving the Holidays at Work When You Dread the Season
- Holidays Can Be Stressful. They Don’t Have to Stress Out Your Team.
- 10 Tips for Addressing Workers’ Heightened Holiday Stress
- The do’s and don’ts of workplace gift giving
- Holiday Workplace Safety
Keeping safe
- Enjoy a Safe Holiday Season
- Thanksgiving Home Fire Safety
- Top 12 Holiday Decorating Safety Tips
- 2 tips for safer holiday home decorating
- 13 Safety Tips for Christmas Lights
- Toy Safety Awareness Month Shares Tips for Safe Toy Shopping this Holiday Season
- 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
- ‘Holiday Safety Tips for Your Pets
- The Most Common Reasons for ER Visits During the Holiday Season
- The 5 Most Common Holiday Insurance Claims
- Top winter home insurance claims and tips to reduce homeowner costs
Maintaining cyber security & avoiding scams
- BBB Tip: Shop like a pro and make the most of this holiday season
- Fake shipping notification emails and text messages: What you need to know this holiday season
- Porch Pirates Won’t Quit. How Can You Stop Them From Stealing Your Holiday Cheer?
- Last-minute shopping? Three ways to spot rip-offs
- Keep your money safe from gift card scammers this holiday season. Here’s how
- Tis the season for holiday scams
- 7 Tips to Avoid Holiday Scams and Protect Your Identity in 2024
- 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
- 14 Tips to Protect Yourself from Cyber and Phone Fraud
- What to know about holiday gift returns
Holiday travel
- TSA and AAA’s Tips on How to Handle 2024 Thanksgiving Travel
- Plan your holiday drives with Google Maps’ trends
- 8 ways to use Maps and more for your holiday plans
- Tips for Holiday Travelers as New U.S. Consumer Protections Kick In
- TSA is prepared for more travelers at airport security checkpoints, expects this holiday travel season to be the busiest ever
- Carry-On Luggage Rules: Everything You Can (and Can’t) Bring With You on a Plane
- Flight attendants share secrets to surviving holiday travel
- AI-Generated Scams Target Holiday Travelers: How To Spot The Red Flags
- 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
- 12 Ways to Have an Eco Friendly Holiday
- Go Green for the Holidays
Giving charitable gifts and donations