I love the holidays, but let’s be honest parents, they’re stressful. I see a lot of you come through my practice the months of December and January because you’ve made yourselves sick from stress. This has to stop. The holidays are meant to be a time for family connection, rest and reflection.

These days though, it seems we’ve made Christmas more about buying fancy gifts, attending parties and Christmas shows at your children’s school and then trying to do all of your family Christmas traditions. Moms everywhere are stressed out by Advent calendars that include doing a meaningful activity with your child every night. It is all too much, and it all ends up distracting us from the true meaning and purpose behind Christmas.

I do believe it is possible to have a more fun and relaxed holiday this year. To avoid getting caught up in the stress, keep these three tips in mind:

Keep it simple.

The reason that most of us stress over the holidays is because we feel pressure to please our kids. The truth is, they are pretty easy to please if we downplay gifts. That’s hard to do in a country that is expected to spend…