The Holiday season is nearly here and for many it's a mixed blessing--Holiday Stress mixed with Holiday Cheer.

Who isn't charmed with sparkling store displays, excited children, and all the delicious cookies and candies everywhere? And a major highlight is arranging relaxed quality time with family and friends at Holiday dinners and parties. There are high expectations and a variety of pressures to ensure happy celebrations.

However, the reality of the season can be quite different; it's a draining month, jam-packed with time-consuming activities and social commitments, stress around finances and gift giving, jam-packed stores with no parking, hyper children, and the challenge of maintaining emotional and physical health. Sometimes just the anticipation of the Holidays can be overwhelming.

Blended families have additional tension that may involve spending time with ex-spouses and multiple sets of grandparents, visiting kids who may be lonely for the other parent, loneliness if your child is spending time with the other parent, step-sibling rivalry, competitive gift giving, and a bunch of children who may be over-stimulated and over-indulged moving between households.

Everybody is run ragged and spread too thin, preparing, cooking, working around conflicting family schedules, and organizing transitioning children. And this year, because financial worries are a serious concern, there is even greater stress around setting a firm budget and being creative about gift giving.

The Holiday season is an emotional time that can make issues more acute; although everyone is supposed to be enjoying themselves and each other, tension and anxiety can take over and stress us out.

What is the secret to reducing Holiday stress and confronting common issues and problems as blended families come together over the Holidays?

The experts advise several stress-reducing strategies including:

Planning ahead and prioritizing Keeping it simple Setting a budget and sticking to it, no matter what Asking friends and family for help and not being the martyr Agreeing on a Time Out for family issues and problems until after the Holidays Keeping children on a schedule and minimizing sugar overload, over-tiredness and meltdowns Maintaining emotional and physical health by getting enough rest

We also recommend treating yourself to affordable, flexible Blended Family group coaching to help decrease holiday stress around any of the above concerns or helping you prioritize and implement useful strategies to make this Holiday season your best ever.