Despite the usual joys of traditions, family gatherings, and celebrations, the holiday season can bring mixed feelings. Everyone has their own individual experience of “holiday cheer”, and we might feel happy, sad, stressed, or all three at once. Anticipating those mixed feelings can go a long way towards helping you cope and find the easiest path through the holidays, and using edibles can help you manage the season in the healthiest, happiest way for you.

Over the holidays, it can be easy to find yourself:

• Taking on too much in your schedule
• Overindulging in food and drink
• Spending less time exercising (or skipping your workout altogether!)
• Missing out on sleep
• Overspending on gifts and parties
• Dealing with personal or family illness, such as Seasonal Affective Disorder
• Sharing too much (or not enough) time with family
• Struggling under work demands
• Facing others’ expectations of how you should feel or act

But no matter how the holidays make you feel, using edibles in the right way can help you get through the season with as much enjoyment as possible.

7 tips to keep you happy and healthy through the holidays

• Make boring tasks more enjoyable. Whether it’s shopping for gifts, preparing food, or wrapping presents, some holiday activities can use some livening up. Cannabis edibles are a classic way to create a little joy in an otherwise mundane endeavor. Try something with a balanced THC to CBD ratio to help you relax while you’re enjoying yourself. Check out our guide to finding the right edibles dose to figure out what ratio works best for you.

• Make it easier to be around annoying relatives. If you already know that interacting with a particular person is going to push your buttons, try taking an edible with CBD beforehand to give yourself a little extra mental space. Cannabis can help us be more understanding and inclusive of others. Make this an intention when you consume an edible before a holiday gathering with others who may not be your favourite people.

• Focus on self-care. Pick out a few self-care activities you can easily do and pair them with an edible containing CBG. This cannabinoid is newer to most consumers, but it provides powerful benefits to many. While we still need more research, some consumers have reported that that edibles with CBG enhanced their mood, calmed them, and gave them strong anti-anxiety effects. Whether your favourite form of self-care is taking a bath or journaling about your feelings when the stress is rising, you can add CBG to your activity to enhance its self-healing properties. Whatever the activities may be, practice them regularly during the holidays, and don’t let yourself feel guilty for taking care of you!

• Prioritize sleep. Getting enough sleep is a big part of feeling good and being able to manage the pressure that comes your way during the holidays. With a busier holiday time, it’s easy to find ourselves staying up extra late and/or sleeping in, which confuses our sleep cycles. A good way to keep your sleep on track is to go to bed and wake up at the same time each day whenever you can. Remember, it’s not all or nothing! It’s ok to stay up a bit later a few nights to participate in fun celebrations. Many people have already discovered the sleep-inducing properties of THC and CBD, but if you struggle to fall asleep, try taking an edible that contains CBN, a cannabinoid that consumers have reported as making them drowsy and fall asleep more easily.

• Liven up the party. Try offering a selection of edibles at your adults-only party to infuse some light-hearted fun.  It’s a good idea to offer a variety of THC to CBD ratios (including CBD only). Be sure to keep them in their original package so everyone knows exactly what they’re getting!

• Maintain your healthy exercise habits. It’s easy to get off track during this busy season, but balancing your eating and physical activity goes a long way towards helping you manage your stress. Try taking a THC edible before taking a walk to brighten up the outdoors and find more warmth in your activity. Or use a high-CBD gummy after a workout to reduce inflammation and make your recovery faster and easier.

• Get crafty and make something new.  Making crafts is a classic holiday pastime, and adds fun to small gatherings with friends.  Dust off that Pinterest board filled with crafty holiday ideas, and take an edible with a balanced ratio of THC to CBD to help you focus at the same time that you open up your mind to new creative ideas. Need some ideas?  We put together a Pinterest board full of fun holiday crafts we’re planning to make this year!