I'll Stay Home for Christmas

Dec. 22, 2010— -- Whether it's over the river and through the woods, or off to the airport and a transcontinental, the hustle and bustle involved in seeing family over the holidays can be physically and emotionally draining.

Especially if you're dealing with the demands of a houseful of relatives or attempting to amicably split the festivities between branches of the family tree that don't get along, it can be tempting to just stay home.

And this may not be such a bad idea, psychologists say.

While avoiding kin altogether is probably not a good idea, taking a holiday off from trying to see and please all your relatives may be restorative for familial relations.

"What you need to think about is how to make most positive the time spent with your family," says Nadine Kaslow, professor and chief psychologist at the Emory University School of Medicine in Atlanta. "Is that a short visit, not going on the holiday but a few weeks after? Maybe do it every other year. It's important to consider all the options and perhaps find a middle ground that you and your family can live with."

Making the Holidays Work for You

For some the holidays are a long-awaited time of family gathering, when relatives who are scattered throughout the country can come together and reconnect. In these instances, the hassle of travel may be the only thing putting a damper on the season.

For many others, however, cramming family time into a hectic few days can be a recipe for drama and bickering. Family members who get along beautifully one-on-one may not mesh so well when they're brought together with mothers and grandfathers and aunts and all other order of relatives under one roof.

For those who fall into the latter category, making sure the holidays are a time of gratitude for one's family may involve some strategic scheduling and, possibly, scheduled time off from them.

"Families -- we love them and they're challenging," says Dr. Carol Bernstein, associate professor of psychiatry at NYU School of Medicine. "Each person should try to be open to the possibilities of ways of spending the holidays, one being not even going if the end result is going to be more painful and destructive than not going," .