This guide is designed to give you some basic tips and tricks for having a “happy holiday”. The author does not warrant or guarantee that following these tips will result in a happy holiday. Some people are just grinchy and no amount of holiday training—or eggnog—will change this.
This guide includes tips for:
- Feasting—tips for creating a festive culinary environment
- Gifting—how to recognize and secure the “perfect gift”
- Greeting—how to spread good cheer
This guide is intended for people who celebrate one or more holidays during the month of December (Gregorian calendar) and hope for them to be happy. Such holidays can include, but are not limited to, Chanukah, Christmas, Boxing Day, Kwanza, and Festivus. This guide is also appropriate for persons intending to celebrate New Year’s Eve, but does not cover palliative measures more commonly associated with New Year’s Day.
This guide is not appropriate for curmudgeons, killjoys, or party-poopers.
Feasting
To create a festive atmosphere, incorporate whimsy in your daily meals during the month of December. Some tips to try:
- Sprinkle colored sugar over your breakfast oatmeal, buttered toast, or cold cereal.
NOTE: Sprinkling colored sugar over eggs and bacon is not recommended, and is likely to lessen festive atmosphere. - Wrap your dinner plates and silverware in pretty paper and adorn them with bows. Every evening, your family will delight in carefully unwrapping each dish and utensil. Environmentally conscious individuals can repurpose used wrapping as napkins or to insulate drafty doors and windows.
- Substitute eggnog for milk in all your favorite recipes.
Gifting
For the purposes of this guide, “perfect gift” is defined as an item of tangible monetary or emotional[1] value:
- Given without expectation of reciprocation
- Reflecting a like, need, or sentimental whim of the receiver
- Not resulting in the giver’s inability to make future payments toward their mortgage, automobile loan, or other essential living expenses
To select the perfect gift:
- On a clean sheet of paper, write down the name of the intended perfect gift recipient (if possible, attach a photo of the recipient taken during a pleasant occurrence, e.g., birthday party, holding a puppy, winning a triathlon).
- Quietly reflect on the recipient for a period of up to ten (10) minutes. You might find it helpful to ask yourself the following questions:
- What activities, experiences, or objects make this person happy?
- Is there anything that would help this person resolve a particular issue or challenge?
- Does this person enjoy vacuuming up glitter for three (3) weeks after receiving a gift?
- Write down a list of words or phrases you would use to describe the recipient. Prioritize the list and highlight the top five (5) words or phrases.
- Take the sheet of paper with you when you shop. When you find a potential perfect gift, review the list and determine if the prospective gift is an accurate representation of recipient.
Greeting
To have a merry and relaxed seasonal celebration, take every opportunity to wish others peace and happiness and cheerfully accept any greeting that is intended to wish you the same. The exact greeting that you give, or receive, should not be a point of stress. For foolproof happiness, use the following rule of thumb:
If a stranger takes the time to smile warmly and wish you a happy _______, do not worry that you typically don’t celebrate _______, or even that you might not actually know what _______ is. Instead, focus on the wish—the sincere wish of a stranger—that you experience joy on whatever day that is important to you.
[Back to post] The emotional value of an item can be determined by volume, when measuring tears produced, or pounds per square inch (PSI), when measuring hug pressure.
Julia McClung is President of InContext, Inc., a technical writing company in RTP, NC. Julia thinks good user documentation is the first, best step in improving customer satisfaction and really likes companies who think so too.
