Hurray! Your wedding day came and now you’re married!! But you didn’t just marry your fiancé, you married into the family. That entails many things like family vacations, reunions, birthdays, family dinners, and the holidays! We are here to help you make the best memories with your new family when celebrating the holidays.

Finding Joy in the Holidays

Communication

You should be talking with your spouse early and often about what you both want out of the holidays. This is significant so you can understand what’s important to each other. After you’ve talked with your spouse, have an open dialogue with your families on what expectations they have for the holidays that year. Over communicating prior to the holiday allows everyone to plan and make better memories.

Share the Holidays

Depending on your family dynamic this is a great way to spend the holidays each year! Taking turns on who gets Christmas or Thanksgiving with their own family can help you feel like you’re getting the family time you need during the holidays. This can vary year to year as more family members marry into the family. You may spend multiple years in a row celebrating the same holiday with your family and that’s okay!! Life happens and sometimes things don’t go as planned but you can still have a great time with family no matter the holiday.

Traditions

If you know your family has a few traditions around the holidays, let your spouse know about them prior to attending so they can prepare themselves (ie. matching Christmas pajamas, running in the turkey trot, Black Friday shopping, etc.). Don’t be afraid to bring some of your own family traditions into the holidays! Of course, you want to respect the traditions your in-laws have but adding a little of your own traditions can help you feel loved and welcome.

Enjoy Yourself

You’re not always going to get everything you want out of the holidays but you can still enjoy yourself. You may have to go along with traditions you think are ridiculous but what’s stopping you from seizing the moment during the holiday downtime? Like reading a book or going for a bike ride or going on a day date with your spouse? You may not be able to control everything that goes on during the holidays but you can control your own happiness.

Adding extra family members to your holidays can add pressure to make it the best. We hope these tips help you in spending meaningful time together during the holidays with your new families.