I normally talk about managing Christmas stress in terms of planning early, not pushing yourself to get everything done and spreading your Christmas visits before and after Christmas and New Year to take the pressure off.
But this is 2020 and nothing is normal as we know it this year. We’ve been denied meeting up with those we love, plans have been put on hold and for those who are already feeling lonely, even the simplest of connections have been changed. You can’t even share a smile with a stranger with a mask on.
So how are you planning to cope with Christmas 2020 style? 
In simple terms, acknowledge what you can’t do this year and think about what you’re going to do instead.
Coping with missing those you’d love to be with is hard. You can still plan to be together in other ways but let’s face it; it’s just not the same.
What you’ll have instead is the gift of time and a new opportunity to use it however you wish so take the gift of time that you’ve been given, no matter what the reason, and think about how you’d like to spend it this year. I often talk about reframing with clients; looking at something in a different way and when it comes to not being able to do something that you enjoy doing, it’s often hard to find a positive side but in order to make Christmas 2020 style the best that it can be, it’s important to find the positives wherever they are.
Perhaps you normally have visitors over the whole Christmas period and this year they’re not able to visit so you have more time for yourself. Perhaps you’ve been promising yourself that you’re going to do something but never quite get around to making time for it. Well, this year you really don’t have an excuse. Pick up a book you’ve been meaning to read. Get out for some lovely winter walks. Start learning a new language that you’d love to get to grips with the basics in but there’s always something else that needs doing.
It really doesn’t matter what it is that you decide to do, the important thing is that you take some time out that you don’t normally have and use it for good things.
That’s Christmas 2020 style!