Here are some things that you can do to help deal with the strain that is placed on your relationship during the holidays.

Step one:
You can talk about taking turns spending time with different relatives. One type of strain that comes up is that both you and your spouse with your families of origin, but sometimes that cannot always be done. Not being able to see and celebrate with everyone can be stressful because then you have to worry about who you are going to see and when. One of the easiest solutions to this problem is to take turns on who you are seeing and when. For example, if you see on group in November, then see the other group in December. You can also try alternating years.

Step two:
If you want to spend time with both families during the year or do not like the stress of having to travel to see family during holidays you can choose to host the celebrations at your house. One of the best things about doing the holidays at your house is that you will get to see everybody who comes more often. Although you need to be prepared for the fact that this method is not always going to work, but when it does it can build strong bonds between groups of relatives that haven't gotten to know each other yet.

Step three:
You need to be prepared to deal with some conflict when getting together as a family. This is especially true if it is usual to have conflict when getting together with your family. You do not need to go looking for trouble or creating conflict, but you need to look at the situation with a sense of realism. If you have family members, who enjoy creating conflict you need to look at the humor in the situation and just deal with their behavior. Something else that you can try doing is telling yourself what you love about them; it can help lower your stress level.

Step four:
Remember you can always say to no to seeing family during the holidays. This can be especially beneficial for people who suffer from a great deal of stress each year from seeing family. Do not make it a habit to say no every year because you still need to spend some holiday time with your family. If you feel, the strain is going to be too much have a quiet celebration at home with your spouse and/or kids.

Step five:
You need to do everything that you can to make your holidays happy, free of the strain that is involved with seeing family. If seeing your family is going to be too much surround yourself with your friends instead. Many holidays have been spent with friends instead of family and those holidays have turned out just fine. Sometimes celebrating with family can put added strain on the relationship, which can ruin the holidays. You can invite family and friends over to help ease the strain or you can simply celebrate with friends.