Holiday hysteria: Yours and theirs

The kids may be counting down the days until school's out and the holiday hoopla begins, but the last thing most parents want at this time of year is for the holiday countdown clock to start speeding up.

In fact, if most moms and dads had their druthers, the clock would take a timeout for a couple of hours — just long enough to allow them to finish the shopping, get a jump on the baking, and decide once and for all if they're actually going to send out any cards this year. (My advice? Go green and send out e-cards instead. If you're inspired to send out personalized notes in the new year, at least you'll be able to send them out at a more leisurely pace-as opposed to turning your kitchen into a mini-post office at the peak of holiday hysteria season.)

But back to the subject at hand: holiday hysteria. Or to be more specific, why combining time-stressed parents and hyped up kids isn't exactly the recipe for holiday bliss. Sure, the Bradys and the Cleavers and all those other über-perfect TV families manage to blend busy lives and energetic kids and pull off the perfect holiday celebration, but then again, the Bradys had Alice pitching in and the Cleavers lived in simpler times (a time when a Blackberry was still something you baked into a pie, not something that could interrupt your dinner). In other words, they weren't real families facing the very real pressure families face today.

So what can we do to prevent our visions of a blissful family holiday from morphing into a particularly nightmarish Tim Burton holiday vision?

Here's my advice.

• Keep the kids busy (but not so busy that they end up over-tired and start out-grinching The Grinch).
• Build in time for rest and relaxation for yourself, too. (That way, you'll be less likely to freak out if someone steps on an ornament or flips the chip dip on to the sofa. After all, accidents happen, particularly when the adrenaline's running high.)
• Keep your expectations of yourself and your kids realistic, particularly at this time of year. After all, the no-fail recipe for holiday disaster includes a super-sized portion of sky-high expectations. Personally, that's one recipe I intend to pass on this holiday season. How about you?