Managing Celebrations

Dear Readers,

This week will be a special week for me. I turn 18 on Wednesday! This year, it’s going to be bittersweet. For the first time in 9 years, I am celebrating my birthday without my friends from my previous school. But as always, I am excited to see what this year brings!

Similarly to holidays, celebrations can bring changes to my normal routine. I love Christmas and birthdays, and I often spend weeks in the lead-up talking about it. But when the day comes, I usually feel overwhelmed and upset by the end of the morning. In this week’s post, I am going to share the things that have helped me to manage all the excitement.

I used to have big parties with friends, inviting lots of girls for a disco or karaoke night. But over the years, I have found that I prefer smaller gatherings when with a smaller number of close friends. Not only is it less overwhelming, but with fewer guests around, there is a bigger budget to choose something extra fun! I have also found that a lot of my friends prefer this too.  

I also find it easier when we take celebrations at a slower pace, as this makes things feel less overwhelming. We tend to keep each part of the celebration separate, and we try our best to keep to our usual routine and structure as much as possible. I celebrated my birthday with my friend last month by going to the theatre. Then this week, we are keeping the special family traditions, such as meals, cake, etc., on 3 separate days. By doing this, I still get to enjoy all the exciting aspects of the celebrations, but it also gives me a chance to relax in between and keep my routine as normal as possible.

With many celebrations, we have also found that it is better to space things like presents out when possible, and control the excitement so that it doesn’t come all at once. On Christmas Day, we have 2 main house rules: no one is up before 6 am, and we are only allowed to open one present per hour. This ensures that I don’t get too overwhelmed by all the excitement, and also allows me to slow down so that I don’t get too overstimulated.

I am so excited to celebrate my 18^th birthday this week! But before I go, I would love to know what methods you find helpful. How do you manage celebrations in your family?

I hope you enjoyed this blog post, and I can’t wait to see you back next week!