How To Deck the Halls When You Can Barely Crawl: Surviving the Holidays With a Chronic Illness

I love Christmas. I love the holiday season in general. For me it is a time to get together with loved ones, sing catchy off-tune jingles, eat way too much chocolate, play board games, curl up by the log fire channel on my television, go outside to build snow men and go sledding long enough to remember that I hate winter and outdoor activities, all while watching the movie Love Actually on repeat for 30 days. It is fun and magical. This holiday season may be a little different for me, though, as I will be recovering from surgery. That got me thinking about how holiday festivities can impact people who suffer from chronic illnesses. As joyful as they can be, the holidays can also be exhausting, stressful and overwhelming for even the healthiest of people. So I think now is a good time to find ways to help ensure a relaxing, healthy December for those of you with chronic illnesses.

I have decided to gather together some of my online and offline writer friends who are impacted personally by chronic illness, whether they self identify as having an illness or they have close loved ones with a disease or disability. I have given these friends a task to share their tips on how to survive the hustle and bustle of the holiday season so they can help YOU find happiness and health this year. We will be providing you with articles full of quick and easy hairstyle and makeup tips for that special holiday party, advice on how to manage fatigue during this busy season, some quick and easy recipes that will be both delicious and nutritious, stress-free decorating and shopping tips, a survival guide for conquering Christmas with Celiac disease, and more! Stay tuned to Damsel in a Dress over the next 2 weeks to find helpful tips and an open dialogue about making the most of this special occasion while balancing the needs of your illness.

And of course we want to hear from you! And by “we” I mostly mean me…I’m just saying “we” to make it sound like I’ve suddenly become cool enough to have a team of worker bees writing my blog posts for me. “We” want to know what life-hacks (I’m only using that term because I’ve already said the word “tips” too many times) you have adopted over the years to guarantee an enjoyable holiday season without having to compromise your physical well-being. Think you have a great idea for a post that will help readers celebrate the holidays with comfort? E-mail me at msorsomething@gmail.com with your pitch if you are interested in guest blogging about this special topic.

When all of the posts have been compiled I will be creating a fancy schmancy little e-magazine for all of you to hold near and dear your hearts that will be jam packed full of fancy schmancy articles and “life-hacks” to help you, my chronically ill peeps! I don’t think I can get away with using the word peeps…

Happy Holidays!

Lisa