5 Ways to Survive Thanksgiving

Holidays are stressful. Mostly because we make them out to be stressful, so here are 5 ways you can survive Thanksgiving this year.

Be Thankful. It IS Thanksgiving after all. Sure, the holiday started out with the Native Americans kindly sharing their bounty with us and then we killed most of them and took their land but we can still be thankful that we’re with our families, we have our health, we have a day off from work or something. Just find something you’re grateful for and enjoy the day.

Plan ahead. Sure, some of you may get a rush by waiting until the last minute, but then you risk the good stuff being gone from the stores, or worse- the wrong sized turkey, the stress of not having anything done and the panic that comes when you can’t find one small, but key ingredient and have to travel to 6 busy grocery stores fighting with everyone else who waited until the last minute. At least plan out your list ahead of time, know what you need and how long everything will take. Add in an hour or two for those unexpected, “oh no!” moments and if you don’t need them, then sit back and relax. If you can pre-order your groceries or get them delivered, do so.

Ask for help! I’ve spent too many Thanksgivings doing all the shopping, the cooking and the cleaning. I then spent every Friday in an exhausted turkey induced stupor. Why? I have no idea. I could have asked everyone to help, but I didn’t. Do not make my mistake. If you have people over the age of 5 who are able bodied, give them a job to do and let them help out. Even if it’s taking out the trash with the turkey carcass in it, who cares, just know it’s not your sole responsibility to do absolutely everything. Unless you’re the maid and you’re being paid for it, then it is your responsibility.

Don’t overdo it. There’s no such thing as perfection and if you’re anything like me, the more you try to be perfect, the worse the situation becomes. The mistakes are kind of comical after the fact, but during that time you’re just needlessly stressing yourself out. Good enough is good enough. I once mistakenly spilled too much rosemary into my stuffing and couldn’t pick it out. The stuffing was painful to eat because the rosemary was poking our gums. It was a bit embarrassing, but I dealt with it, no one died and from then on I remembered that the cap to the rosemary should be opened carefully. See, good lessons can come from not-so-great events. You can probably do anything, but you certainly can’t do it all at once. Let little things go.


You can’t change anyone else but yourself. If you’re spending the holiday with your not-so-favorite relatives or friends, choose how you’re going to react to the day. Sure, Aunt Erma will probably drink too much…again, but that’s her issue, not yours. Choose to make sure that you have fun, you are relaxed and those little bumps that come with holidays are just little bumps instead of major tragedies. A major tragedy is when you put the deep fryer too close to the house and it burns down. Try making wine spritzers and hopefully that will help keep Aunt Erma slightly more sober, but if you walk into the holiday acting like you’re walking on to a battlefield, you probably won’t have much fun. Again, choose to let the little things go, if even for one day and be grateful everyone at the table is there again, at least for this year.

To learn more about Alison Kero and her company, Gotham Concierge or to schedule a time management seminar, webinar or one-on-one session with her, contact Alison at: info@gothamconcierge.com or 646-831-9625.