Merry Christmas! Ironically, the holidays can be a tough time. It’s supposed to be a time of peace. A time of happiness. And a time for relaxation and recharging. But sometimes… sometimes there is something that becomes stressful. This time of happiness can quickly turn into a SHTF survive the holiday’s type situation. I’m referring to as you might have guessed…
Family.
How To Survive The Holidays
The holidays can be great or just a period that you would rather just get it over with. Dealing with family can sometimes be worse than being on a Winter camping trip without a coffee cup to drink coffee in.
7 Family Survival Hacks During The Holidays
But what if there were sneaky tricks and hacks for surviving all of this chaos? Ah, but there are. Yes indeed. Some of these have nearly cut my stress levels in half last year.
1. Mindset
We know in the preparedness community, mindset comes first. Consider what your mindset is around the holidays. If our mindset is already negative about this time of the year in general, it will likely be a bad time.
And all the eggnog and Christmas tree shaped sugar cookies in the world won’t save you.
2. Preparation
What if I told you preparing for the festivities and all the chaos, food, and eggnog that comes with it is like preparing for any other disaster or emergency.
Like preparing for a power outage for example.
You know it’s coming. You know what to do to prepare. You know it’s going to be chaotic and you’ll have to make a few adjustments.
But it will pass.
3. Instacart
Instacart has been becoming increasingly popular. And for good reason. I don’t use it as much as I should. One of the most stressful things about the holidays is all the shopping you have to do.
God forbid we forget something at the grocery store, it nearly becomes a SHTF situation. Those who do the cooking know what I mean…
4. Live Out Your Childhood Dream Of Being An Actor (For a week)
One of the survival skills that very rarely get mentioned, is acting.
We’re all actors to some degree. Everyone has the ability to act in more of a particular way for a period of time. Some people go to the extreme with this. Some get by doing it, which is what I do. And some don’t do it enough.
If acting very briefly more passive and more non-reactive during the holidays could cut stress in half. I’d say it’s worth doing.
5. Bug-Out!
The best way to survive a situation is to not be in the situation at all.
[bctt tweet=”The best way to survive a situation is to not be in the situation at all.” username=”thesurvivaljournl”]Have your BOV prepped and ready. Make sure you have your tactical knife in your BOB.
And bug-out as if SHTF!
I’m only half kidding. However, if you could get away with traveling for the holidays. Or avoiding the time period completely. I would do it. Go out on an adventure. Leave before the chaos starts and when you come back, it will all have came and past like a hurricane.
These last two are for Christmas specifically.
6. Build A DIY Wax Stove
Many people like to light more candles during the holidays. They’re vibrant. They’re festive. Some candles we buy and some we just make DIY candles because we likely learned how to make them for surviving a cold Winter night camping.
But with great numbers of burning candles, comes great quantities of candle wax. Another quality us preppers have is making more use out what would normally be thrown away or not used.
Why not put all that candle wax to good use? You can build a DIY stove with wax and cardboard.
Watch this video on how to make the wax and cardboard stove.
7. Use The Colorful Ribbons To Survive In The Wild
Ribbons are a common item that accumulates in abundance when opening up presents. Most of the time we just throw them away with the other scraps.
But what if we used the ribbons for something? What qualities do ribbons have that could be put to good use instead of taking up space in the trash can.
They’re colorful. Blues, greens, yellows. These colors would be easy to see out in the wild.
Take the ribbons and pack them in your camping, backpacking, and survival kits. You can use the ribbons to mark your path.
8. Build a Holiday Survival Kit
Now if you’re still wondering how to maintain your sanity over the holidays, this just might do the trick.
Just like any other survival situation, we need supplies. We need gear. First, though, we need the knowledge, but then we need a holiday family survival kit. I know I do.
Here are 3 essential holiday survival supplies for your kit.
1. Liquor
This is probably the most obvious so let’s start off with liquor. Stock up on your bourbon and brews. Sometimes all you need a comfortable chair and glass of bourbon to make it another day. Small bottles of liquor can make good stocking stuffers as well.
2. Christmas Cookies
One of my favorite things about this time of year is all the cookies. Cookies everywhere.
Every now and then, it’s important to indulge in these types of foods. So pack a few of your favorite kinds of cookies, you’ll be glad you packed them.
3. That Christmas Sweater
Everyone enjoys a good old fashion not so stylish sweater at the Christmas party. Pick one, wear it with pride. You could even make a DIY Sweater. A Prepper Sweater is what I like to call it.
[bctt tweet=”You could even make a DIY Sweater. A Prepper Sweater is what I like to call it.” username=”survivaljournl”]Conclusion
This post wasn’t to be taken 100% seriously, most of it is meant to be numerous. But there are some good tips here for you if you do find yourself in that family holiday survival situation. I know I do most years. If you need a more extreme method for surviving a Christmas party, you could definitely adapt the gray man methodology.
All joking aside, happy holidays. I wish you a Merry Christmas. I’m going to get back to my eggnog.
Do you have any good holiday survival hacks or tips that work for you?
