Six Ways to Stay Sane During the Holidays

For MBoston: start a new tradition...now. It sounds as if your husband may be your main problem. Are they there for him? They don't sound like they're there for you. So, they're acting out, passively-aggressively. And so perhaps are you. Say something. Or better yet, do something different. It will make waves perhaps. It will not be comfortable perhaps even for you, the first year or even maybe the second, but with time, you'll learn to stop swallowing your voice and become more comfortable with setting boundaries... I give this advice out of experience, the kind that comes only with time spent making the hard choices.

As co-authors of Save Our Sanity: The Christmas Calm Manual, your suggestions align very much with our own tips.
Our readers have also found it useful to take the earlier step that our book includes. We help frazzled parents (women especially) to look at their perspectives, attitudes and expectations, identify what's not working and take action to make their own Christmas as joyous as it is for their loved ones!
Your readers may be interested in getting our Tips for Christmas Calm at our site http://www.SaveOurChristmasSanity.com

Comment: All the ccelebrations are in our house. My husband invites his family and also his ex wife. I prepare everything and set a beautiful table. His ex wife always seats opposite to my husband at the other end of the table. They hardly try what I have cooked making comments such as: it is to rich or I don't like it. When they come in they never greet us, and when they leave they never say goodbye or thank you. I set the table with the proper silverware and glasses. They never use knifes or glasses. They bring their pepsis, or other canned bevarages to the table and drink straight from the cans. This upsets me a great deal, because they either are doing it on purpose or do not know anything about etiquete and good manners at the table.
When we got married they did not congratulate us. It was as if nothing had happened. I am becoming insane, and this is affecting my health very much indeed. I cannot say a word otherwise it will be trouble for me.
MBoston

Comment: I am newly married and my husband invites his ex wife and his family for all the celebrations. It is always in our home. I prepare everything, from cooking to setting the table and cleaning up. They hardly try what I cook, and make comments such as: it is too rich or I don't like it. I try to be a good hostess but to no avail. They never wish us Happy Thanksgiven, or Happy Christmas, they do not even say hello when they come in or goodbye and thank you whent they leave. I set a nice table, with the proper silverwear, glasses, etc. They do not use knifes and neither glasses, they bring their canned beverages to the table and spoil its looking. It seems they are either being rude on purpose or do not know anything about etiquete. His ex wife starts going down memory lane, reminding my husband of the times they were together. The problem is that I cannot make any comments and have to keep quite and accept things the way they are, otherwise my husband will ask me to go back to my country.
It is not easy.
N.Taylor

Remember the reason for Christmas: The Birth of Christ, the Saviour of the world.

Bob Hobbs

The major problem of today's society is that parents are caving into every damn want their kids desire.
Almost every kid these days have a credit card, a new or almost new car.
The ultimate GREED today is the almighty dollar with credir card debt over a trillion dollars and Bush has borrowed to the tune of $9.4 trillion.