'Tis the season to be jolly....or is it? If you find yourself having to fight the urge to lock yourself in the toilet with a bottle of something strong on holiday occasions, then a little bit of humor might be just the ticket to head off any holiday stress and impending insanity of tense family situations. You could go and sob into the punch bowl, or you could fight fire with humor and funny moments in a bid to reduce stress and enjoy the holidays with loved ones.
Adding Humor to the Holidays
So the turkey may have turned into a dog's dinner, the fruitcake may have exploded, and you may have been locked in that crushing moment when two people gave the same gift to someone, but all is not lost! In hindsight, these are actually hilarious situations. What's better than to laugh off these moments of festive calamity? Sharing laughter helps people realize the most important part of the holiday is the gift of being together. To that end, here are some tips on how to find humor for holiday stress (yes, really).
Tell Jokes
Uh oh....serious conversation alert! If you sense things taking a downhill turn on the serious side, you need to maneuver fast out of the one-way road to stress. For this, it helps to have a few jokes up your sleeve. At the dinner table or at parties, a light joke and some laughter can help ease everyone's nerves (yes, even the eye rolling variety). Here are three easy-to-remember jokes which could just save your bacon.
- Why do reindeer stop for coffee on their Christmas run? Because they're Santa's star bucks.
- How does Santa know whether we've been bad or good? It's called Facebook.
- What is Santa's favourite song? Why does it always rein on me.
You can also stock up on easy-to-remember emergency one-liner holiday jokes at these websites:
- Holiday Jokes - What is the best Christmas present in the world? A broken drum, you just can't beat it!
- Christmas Jokes - Why does Santa have three gardens? So he can ho-ho-ho.
- Funny Thanksgiving Jokes - How many cooks does it take to stuff a turkey? Only one, but you REALLY have to squeeze to get him in.
Laugh at Yourself
Unless you want to be known as Scrooge over the holiday season, the best thing you can do is not to take yourself too seriously. If you're feeling miserable and down on yourself for not having achieved the goals you had imagined over the last year, the best humor comes with poking fun at your misjudgments and mistakes. Be the bigger person and make light of a subject that used to make you upset; it's free therapy and the perfect way to relax during the holidays.
Find Laughter Every Day
Trying to create the perfect holiday from memories and finding out things are just not the same is about as fun as falling out of a tree. Instead of wishing for how things used to be, create new memories and intend to laugh along the way. When you're counting down to a particular holiday, find one thing to laugh or smile about every day and watch your stress fade away.
Watch Funny Movies
Humorous holiday movies can help get you in the mood for laughter with side-splitting moments fuelled by scripted mistakes, failures, and blunders, allowing you to laugh in the face of any holiday stress. These funny holiday movies offer some holiday laughter therapy.
- A Christmas Story - Just try not to fall off your chair laughing at the monstrosity of a pink Easter bunny costume the poor kid in this film get lumbered with. The most laughable Christmas gift ever? Probably.
- National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation - Things don't get much more comedic than discovering your Christmas bonus is, in fact, a sucky membership to the Jelly of the Month Club.
- Elf - Comedic firepower comes in many forms in this movie including the ultimate Santa insult, "You smell like beef and cheese! You don't smell like Santa!" Warning, do not try this line at your local mall.
- The Santa Clause - Lines like "Who gave you permission to tell Charlie there was no Santa Claus? I think if we're going to destroy our son's delusions, I should be a part of it," leave people squealing with hilarity every single time.
- Home Alone - How can you ever tire of laughing at the series of booby traps unleashed on the baddies in this film? Blowtorches, irons, and snow shovels were never put to such comical (and painful) use!
- Jingle All the Way - Picture Arnold Schwarzenegger knocking out a reindeer. What more do you need?
- Bad Santa - Imagine a drunk Santa scratching his butt while a line of kids looks on, while telling a kid they shouldn't do that very same thing. It's the delivery of these lines that make for razor sharp humour in this flick.
- Christmas with the Kranks - This movie is packed full of laugh-out-loud classic anti-Christmas antics, including icing away with those pesky Christmas carol singers taking up your front porch.
Set up a Prank
A holiday prank is the perfect way to throw some hilarity into the mix and diffuse some of the stress that comes with being so preoccupied during the holiday season. Pranks can be something as simple as cling wrapping the tree on Christmas morning, tying some string around one of the Christmas presents to be yanked out of reach, sneaking a fake rat onto one of the dinner dishes, or a prank call from Santa. All it takes is a little imagination and cunning, and you can kiss goodbye that stress as people fall about laughing at your prankster genius.
Have Some Fun and Games
Games are a great way of injecting humor and fun while diffusing stress and are a vital part of festive celebrations whether you are an adult or a child. Unless you have a room full of sore losers (you know there will always be one), games are a great way to take the seriousness out of family gatherings. Here are a few suggestions for some easy to organze intergenerational games:
Humor Is Everywhere
Laughter is catching. Once one thing is funny, more things are found to be humorous, and before you know it, you are all rolling around laughing at...who on earth can even remember what? So, make way for laughter and the ability to have a good time during the holidays. After all, the best memories are made in those moments where the unexpected is embraced.
