Navigating the Holiday Season: Finding Peace Amid the Chaos
- Cecilia Mannella
- Dec 19, 2025
- 5 min read
The holiday season can be really, really challenging. Everything from unresolved triggers around grief or family dynamics, children who have grown up and left, aging parents, losing your job—generally, the holidays can be a bit of a challenge emotionally, financially, and physically for all of us. So how do you find peace amid the chaos?
What I really want to keep in mind is that there are ways to navigate the holiday season with a little bit more ease and peace in your heart and your mind. I want to share some of my insights with you. This comes from over 25 years of practice in the mental health field and things I've integrated personally into my own life that have made a huge difference.
Because the holiday season blues are real. Even if you love the sparkle and the magic, we can get inundated and overwhelmed with all the stressors that come our way. And let's be honest with ourselves—Christmas has really changed over the years. I'm not sure whether that's just the current digital world we live in, whether it's the impact of COVID, or just a combination of everything, but the holiday season feels a lot different than maybe when I was aging myself (I'm dating myself here). When I was a kid, Christmas felt magical. It was really special. And it doesn't feel that way anymore. Maybe that's because we're just so overwhelmed.
So I want to share with you some ideas around reducing the overwhelm and finding some of that sparkle and some of that magic again.
1. Don't Over-Schedule
The first part of finding peace during the holidays is to not over-scheduling. It's shocking to me how often we fill our December calendar with get-togethers and coffee dates and dinners and parties and cookie drives and gift exchanges and all these things. If you're doing it in your own life, it's even more so when it's just one thing after another—our schedules become so inundated with events. And as much as we're excited to say yes to all these things, we often fail to see the impact it has on our calendar and ourselves.
So I really encourage you to take stock of your current calendar. What have you committed to that you actually really want to go to? What are you committed to that you can let go of? You can back out of some of those commitments. And as you get invitations for the holiday season, perhaps you can start to say no to some of those things and focus on keeping your schedule a little bit freer and have some space in there.
2. Practice Saying No
The second thing to think about is just getting better at saying no. You don't have to say yes to every invitation. You don't have to say yes to everything. Actually, you can say no to anything that you want to say no to. And in practicing saying no, what you're doing is you're saying yes to yourself. You're saying yes to what's important to you—yes to your time, your energy. You're saying yes to you.
So learn to lean into some of those no's. You don't have to do everything that everyone's inviting you to. You don't have to do traditions that your family has done for years. Traditions are just peer pressure from people who've passed on. So you can say no to anything that you want to.
3. Make Time for Rest
The third thing is to over-estimate and keep time for rest. We schedule things, but we rarely schedule rest. As much as possible, make time for downtime—staying in your pajamas, not having anything to do, being able to just hang out with people you care about and love, or curl up with your dog or a book. Have time for rest.
Because we're so over-scheduled and so focused on being busy that we forget the holiday season is actually a time to just calm down and to slow down as much as possible. Make time for resting. It's dark outside. The season has changed. We kind of want to hibernate—no different than some bears do. We just need to really honour our bodies, our minds, our hearts. We need some downtime after a really busy and crazy year.
4. Redefine What the Holidays Mean to You
The fourth thing is being really focused on redefining what the holidays mean to you. So many people are holding on to this old definition of buying and shopping and spending so much money and energy out there, and then they feel like somehow it's not as fun anymore. It feels bloated.
You can redefine what the holidays mean to you. You can make it about connection. You can make it about playing board games with each other or doing a puzzle. You can make it about just sharing a meal with somebody. Don't focus on the commercialized version. The holidays aren't about all the stuff that you're buying. It's not about the hustle and bustle. It really is about what the holidays mean to you.
Because you have the power to redefine that in a way that is meaningful to you, in a way that restores you, and in a way that's really connected to your values and who you are—what's really at the core of you.
5. Keep It Simple
And the last thing I'll say is: keep it simple. The more that we over-complicate things and the more that we try to do more things and get the new gadgets and all the things we think we need, we really, really over-complicate it. And the problem with over-complicating is that it just becomes less enjoyable.
I really want you to enjoy this holiday season. I want you to feel rested and feel restored. I want you to go into the new year feeling ready and excited for 2025, feeling like you have things to look forward to, and feeling really proud of how you navigated the year. And that comes from keeping the holidays very simple.
You Get to Choose
Here's what I want you to remember: you have permission. Permission to say no. Permission to rest. Permission to skip traditions that no longer serve you. Permission to create new ones that do.
The holidays don't have to look like they used to. They don't have to look like anyone else's. They just have to feel right for you.
So as you move through this season, I encourage you to pause. Check in with yourself. Ask what you really need. And then give yourself permission to honour that—even if it means disappointing someone else, even if it means doing things differently this year.
You deserve to enter 2025 feeling restored, not depleted. And that starts with the choices you make right now, in this moment, about how you want to navigate the weeks ahead.
Be gentle with yourself. You're doing the best you can.
About the Author
Cecilia Mannella brings over 25 years of experience in the mental health field, supporting individuals and families through life's most challenging seasons. As a therapist at Eterna Counselling & Wellness in Abbotsford, BC, Cecilia specializes in helping clients navigate grief, family dynamics, and the emotional complexities that often surface during the holiday season. Her approach blends clinical expertise with practical, lived wisdom—offering compassionate support that honours where you are while guiding you toward where you want to be.
If you're finding the holidays particularly challenging this year, Eterna Counselling & Wellness is here to help. Reach out to book a session with Cecilia or one of our experienced therapists.