How to Split Time with Family at Christmas (Without Feeling Guilty About it)
Christmas can be a tough time of year when it comes to making sure that every member of your family feels loved and important. But it can be more challenging when you're a couple looking to make the most of the time you and your families have together.
It can be a point of contention for most couples, but there is an easy way of splitting your time with both sides at Christmas, without feeling guilty about how it's done or who you're seeing come the big day. So here's how you can split your time with family this festive season:
Communicate in advance & be willing to compromise
Make sure that you're making your plans well in advance and be prepared to compromise. When you're married, or in a committed relationship, it's important to spend time with both sides of the family as a couple, especially during the festive season.
So be willing to compromise so that things are fair. While this might be more complicated if your families live afar, it's still possible with the right planning in place and with enough notice given - simple, really, when you communicate your intentions in advance with, not only yourselves, but with your family, too.
Allot time for both sides of the family
The way we do things is we will spend Christmas Eve morning with one side and then Christmas Eve evening with the other side. If we go to one side for Christmas dinner on Christmas Day, we will see the other side Christmas morning.
We will then see one side Boxing Day morning and the other Boxing Day evening. We really do like a good 50/50 split so that everyone gets the same amount of time when it's needed most. We alternate New Year's Eve celebrations year-on-year, to make that fair too.
Think of how to allot the time to your family at Christmas in good time, because believe me, everyone will be asking you what you're doing for Christmas as early as October, so get your plans in place as soon as possible.
It's always nice to host at your place
You could always make it as fair and as even as it possibly can be by hosting Christmas at your home, rather than by being forced to split your time. This way, everyone gets to see everyone, without having to wait a year or having to compromise your Christmas for the New Year and vice-a-versa. It's a great way to keep everyone happy, especially when you have children and flexibility isn't always that easy.
Swap family members every year
This is what we do. For instance, we will see my family for Christmas Day one year and then Tom's family for Christmas Day the following year. This is the same for New Year. If we saw my family New Year's Eve this year, then we'll spend New Year's Eve with Tom's family the next year. It really is that simple. It keeps everyone in the loop, it creates a pattern that the family can follow and it just makes it fair.
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I hope you enjoyed this blog post and that you found it useful? Let me know in the comments what you've decided to do this year when it comes to splitting time with family and I will see you again very soon with some brand new festive content!
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