It’s Christmas season. Decorated trees are setting up camp in living rooms across the globe, carols are pumping out declarations of ‘peace on Earth’, ‘joy to the world’ and celebrating ‘silent night, holy night’. Netflix has released a host of feel-good Christmas romance movies about time travelling Christmas knights (Yeah, I’m confused too) and women all over Pinterest are planning DIY wreaths, table settings and pinning pictures of mittened hands gripping toasted marshmallow hot chocolates in the snow. Everywhere you look, the fantasy of the perfect Christmas begs for attention.
The eccentric members of a dysfunctional family reluctantly gather under the same roof for various reasons. Director: Wes Anderson Stars: Gene Hackman, Gwyneth Paltrow, Anjelica Huston, Ben Stiller. Votes: 268,019 Gross: $52.36M. Holiday Party Bingo Cards to Play With Your Dysfunctional Family Jennifer Lewis of Flavorwire has created a series of Holiday Party Bingo cards to print out and play with your (dysfunctional) family at the dinner table.
Meanwhile, in reality- Christmas can be the WORST. It’ssweat-city because, newsflash we live in Australia where there’s always a droughtor bushfire at Christmastime, everyone’s sunburnt and tired, families feel likethey’re falling apart, bank accounts are empty, depression rises, and the nightis certainly not silent. It’s broken by the screaming of stressed out families,frustrated tears and sometimes emergency service sirens attending to a tragedyor domestic dispute.
Merry Christmas?
Dysfunctional Family Christmas Snl
There’s no doubt Christmas can be an incredibly difficulttime, and I think the most common reason for this are those obligatory familygatherings on December 25th.
I recently put the call out on Facebook for recovering women’s best tips and tricks to surviving the Christmas season without roundhouse-kicking their entire family in the teeth, or ending the day frustrated, unhappy and exhausted. Here are seven great tips to help you experience just a little of that ‘peace on Earth’ we’re promised at Christmas.
Don’t go. It may not feel like you have a choice, but you do. Staying home on Christmas Day is always an option, despite the expectations your family may have. Make the best choice for you. Just because you’re related by blood doesn’t mean you have to put up with their crap.
If you choose to go, setfirm boundaries around time-frames and stick to them, making sure you have control over your transportation or way out. Clearly communicate these from the start e.g ‘We will come at 2pm until 4pm’. No further explanation is needed. Doing so will eliminate the feeling of needing to stick around all day. Long days with difficult people are no good for your mental wellbeing.
If necessary, chose a safe word. If your partner, children or you feel unsafe andneed to get out, simply communicate that word and it’s time to leave.
During the event, take time out where you can. Especially if you’re an introvert!Step away from socialising to do the dishes, take a short walk, do some foodprep or hang out on the toilet with your phone for a while! Just tell ‘em youhad Indian take-out for dinner the night before! You may also like to beintentional about chatting with people one-on-one if you have a favouritecousin, sibling or safe person. This avoids the stress tsunami of talking to andhaving to listen to your whole family discuss potentially triggering things.
Dysfunctional Family Christmas Bingo
Prayabout it. Ask God for peace amongst chaos and opportunities for graciousand wholesome conversation. Pray for radical change in all who need helphealing wounds- including yourself.
Games! Cards, bingo, team games, scrabble- people are usually comfortable with fun, if they’re not, they can at least watch what’s going on. This is much better than discussing politics, religion or casual racism. Games lighten the mood, build bridges and create positive memories. Except Monopoly. For the love of all that is holy, don’t bring out Monopoly at Christmas!
Be awareof using food, sex, porn, alcohol, drugs or overspending as escape. If youstruggle with compulsive behaviours, prepare yourself for Christmas week withintentional accountability, self-care and any other preventative measures youneed.
There are no perfect families, only healthier and lesshealthy ones. Each generation will need to work through some baggage from theirupbringing, and it looks different for each individual. Whether you have traumaconnected to your family, parents with wildly different world-views to you,chronic health conditions that go misunderstood or any other stress that runshigh at Christmas- your pain is valid and you as an adult have the power tomake the best choice for you.
$4.00
Perfect for the holidays, this Dysfunctional Family Bingo Printable Package can be printed on a standard 8.5×11″ sheet of paper.
Dysfunctional Family Bingo Printable Package comes as 8 Printable sheets per package. Just print and you’re ready for Holiday fun!
You can print as many as you would like at home or at your local printer. We recommend printing on high quality printer paper with a local professional printer for best quality.
You will receive a printable file of (8) 8.5×11″ Everyday Party Magazine Dysfunctional Family Bingo Printable Package delivered to the email supplied within the checkout process.