Using your sun sign to deal with Holiday Stress

Aries

The holidays are the best and worst time for Aries. You love feeling like a kid again. You probably still go the mall and sit on Santa’s lap. I bet he appreciates that. You find out one way or another. But festivities means dealing with other people and worse: waiting for them.

Triggers: Dealing with ambling crowds, traffic jams, and delays makes you see red. You also don’t like hearing the same damned Christmas song all the time. And you’re ready to kill someone if you get in the TSA line behind someone who acts like they don’t know the drill or if you have to sit through midnight services.

Solution: Avoid a potential lethal bender of Adderall and booze. Shop online, and early, so at least that is out of the way. If you’re traveling for the holidays, consider either going early or taking a redeye to avoid the crowds. Remember that road rage and black ice are a bad combination.

Taurus

Taurus: Food and presents! This is your favorite time of year for pretty much those two reasons. A month-long indulgence is what you wait for all year long. You also remember to get a thing or two for yourself when shopping for other people. Any store with free samples is your favorite store.

Triggers: The only thing that really stresses you out is frenzied shopping and running out of food. Black Friday: if someone got between you and that last Hatchimal, you’d be in jail…and they would be DEAD. And once you’re done with the holiday, you’re done, and you will not be moved to do anything last-minute.

Solution: Pace yourself. Overeating can wreak havoc on your mood, and make you feel even lazier than you naturally are. Figure out what you actually like to do around the holidays and only do that. If all you really like is to eat candy and watch A Christmas Story repeatedly, then why not?

Gemini

Gemini: The holidays mean getting together with friends and family, running around, errands, and burning the candle at both ends. You got this. You’re the go-to person for handling tasks. You actually know how to wrap presents or untangle strings of lights. You know who was actually naughty or nice.

Triggers: Who are you, Captain Save-a-Holiday? The problem is that everyone comes to you with their problems. The spirit is willing, but the body is weak. You don’t realize that you’ve peaked until you start to crash. You don’t want to displease people, but moreover, you don’t want to believe that you have limits.

Solution: Try to do something else that isn’t relate to the holidays, like read a book or watch a television series unrelated to anything you have to do. Delegate tasks, even if you think you can handle them. Try to do as many of your errands online to avoid spending your days and nights in the car.

Cancer

Cancer: Well, aren’t you the festive one? You’ve got the tree up before Halloween ends, and you can’t wait to gather all 5,000 of your closest relatives together for a fun, old-fashioned family Christmas, Clark Griswold-style, even if you’re not Christian. Make the holidays happen for everyone.

Triggers: When people go rogue. You run the holidays and you will not deal with dissent. Fighting or tension between family members ruins it for you. It feels like the end of the world if you can’t be home for the holidays. You may handle this by stress eating, and even though you like roomy clothes, they can get snug awful quickly.

Solution: Learn to let go of some things. Even though you want everyone to have a wonderful holiday, you don’t have to do everything. Let someone else have some input or actually help you make things come together. If the most important thing is being together, focus on that and not the details.

Leo

Leo: You slave to pay off your credit cards all year long so you can run them up again this time of year. Your shopping list is a mile long and you will make damned sure everyone is having a good time. After all, this is supposed to a month-long party, and you live for the party.

Triggers: You want to be the greatest and most appreciated person on the holidays, and not getting what you want is actually a huge deal. Bad presents, having to wait your turn, and not getting your way makes you feel that your contributions to the holiday mean nothing.

Solution: You have to share the holidays with lots of other people, and not everyone gets to be in the spotlight. Credit cards aren’t magical goodies makers. You don’t have to deal with financial fallout in January if you look for deals and create a budget for how much you will spend on everyone this year. There are still 11 more months in the year, you know.

Virgo

Virgo: Who actually does all the work and gets none of the credit? You do all the work no one else wants to do, but if you didn’t do it, it wouldn’t be the same. Cancer may get the credit, and Leo may want the credit, but you really do make the holidays happen.

Triggers: You’re your biggest stress trigger. The holidays are work, and that’s what you do: work. Being stuck washing dishes while everyone else is watching a movie makes you pity yourself. You can’t let it go if someone isn’t doing something correctly and redo it. Then, people get annoyed with you, and you pity yourself again.

Solution: Take your vitamin C and get a flu shot. You tend to get sick this time of year. And why should you be stuck with all the work? Put your foot down at the start of the holiday and let everyone know you expect them to help. Don’t sweat the small stuff either. You’re the only one who notices that there are two ornaments of the same color on the same branch.

Libra

Libra: Party time! The holidays are a blend of your favorite things: people, sweets, shopping, and decorating. You’re the perfect host, and chances are you’ve been planning a holiday party since last January. You’ve hung mistletoe in every doorway in your house, and the meter reader is happy to oblige.

Triggers: You’re so worried about what everyone else thinks that you don’t spend enough time enjoying the holidays. You worry about being festive enough. That’s odd, but you do. You strive to give equal time and attention to everyone. You have to pretend that you like crappy gifts, which only encourages people to give you crappy gifts next year.

Solution: Eating too many sweets will make you feel ugly, but it feels good at the time. Make time to do something you want to do this year, even if it means not giving someone else exactly what they want right when they want it. Don’t feel ashamed to return a gift to the store or exchange it for something you actually like.

Scorpio

Scorpio: You either love the holidays or hate them with a passion. You’re either spearheading a no-shopping holiday or criticizing the guy at Sears for not wishing you a Merry Christmas. You either still pretend to believe in Santa to get gifts from your parents or you flat out tell children he’s made-up.

Triggers: The phoniness of the holidays is what gets you. You don’t want to make nice with people just because it’s that time of year. There are advantages to going through the motions, and you do, even though it eats you up inside. Shouldn’t people be nice all year round? Yes, but does this solve the problem? No.

Solution: Remember that this all ends soon. Even if some parts of the holiday are manufactured, other people truly believe that this is a magical time of year. The holidays may be easier if you can spend them intimately with a significant other, renting a cabin and watching the snow fall while sitting by the fire.

Sagittarius

Sagittarius: You will eat your way into fitting into that Santa suit yet! You love the colors, the food, the drink (especially) the drink, and the celebration of being alive. You’re particularly interested in what other cultures do for the holidays, and you readily indulge. You never regret (or remember) whatever you did at the company party.

Triggers: Being asked to actually do anything around the holidays boils your blood, especially if means adhering to traditional gender roles. You’re all about the merriment but aren’t so keen on making it happen. Anything that deals with a mundane task, like shopping or cooking, feels like a huge inconvenience.

Solution: Travel elsewhere. Face it: you would rather be exploring a new part of the globe than sitting in a crowded house upholding family traditions…unless they’re not your traditions (or your family). If you must see family, have a global holiday. Watch your drinking: even if you don’t remember what you did and said, others do.

Capricorn

Capricorn: Bah, humbug! Actually, Capricorn really likes the holidays. They just don’t want to show their enthusiasm. Are they stingy? Well, maybe. Capricorn prefers to spend carefully and will not max out a credit card to buy the appreciation of others. They know the value of a dollar and expect others to know it, too.

Triggers: Anything that makes you have to be a joiner freaks you out. You make sure not to be caught under the mistletoe, and hugging strangers makes you cringe. Having to buy stuff that seems to serve no purpose, like decorations, or for secret Santa, or gift tags, drives you nuts. Why all the fuss?

Solution: Understand that sometimes you just have to do things for other people, even if it seems silly or wasteful. Joy, even mindless joy, serves a purpose. Try to find the value in whatever it is you have to do this holiday season so it doesn’t seem like nonsense or a waste of money.

Aquarius

Aquarius: A whole month of clichés and traditions started by department stores? No thanks. You’re not Scrooge. You just prefer to do your own thing, and being forced into the hoo-hah of the season cramps your style. But you don’t endure: you rebel. The holidays are big f-off to commercialism for you.

Triggers: You actually like the idea of merriment, just not being forced to celebrate anyone’s way other than your own. The corniness of the holidays drives you nuts. Commercialism bothers you greatly, as does being expected to do anything just because everyone else is doing it.

Solution: Create your own holiday traditions. Don’t think you need to kill a tree this year? Decorate a coat rack. Your sense of humor will get you through this. Donate to charity instead of buying gifts. Have a un-holiday, like Festivus, and invite everyone to try to wrestle you to the ground.

Pisces

Pisces: It’s the most wonderful time of the year, and you love the magic of the holidays. Why can’t we do this all year round? You probably still believe in Santa Claus. At least you still enjoy all the child-like parts of the holidays.

Triggers: Your biggest trigger is disappointment. You’re a big boy or big girl now, and you would rather not have to do the holidays the adult way. You’re likely to hide from disappointment and letdowns in a bottle, but hangovers suck. You tend to overdraw on your bank accounts before you’re finished shopping.

Solution: Accept the fact that you can’t go back in time. You can still keep the magic of the holidays alive by sharing it with other people. No one is going to wave a magic wand and make things perfect for you. And stay sober this month. Binging is going to make it harder for you to stay on the ball and stay within a budget.