How your divorce with children can change holiday celebrations

Children are a big part of what makes the holidays worth celebrating. After all, they enjoy the gift-giving, the costumes and the special foods. Watching their reactions to floats participating in televised parades or their anticipation to open presents can be a big part of your own joy during the holiday season.

Unfortunately, your holiday celebrations are among the many parts of your life that will change when you divorce. Many families have to rethink their approach to the holidays so that the children can still enjoy themselves.

What are some of the ways that you and your ex could potentially share custody without turning the holidays into a hectic and unhappy season for your family?

Look at all of your scheduling options

There is more than one way to share custody on holidays and other special days like birthdays. If the parents are from different cultural backgrounds, they may prefer different holidays, which can make sharing them easier. Parents could also split up the children so that parents have certain children on different holidays.

You can choose the alternating schedule that many families select. Each parent has an opportunity to enjoy different holidays with the child every year so that they share them fairly, and they get to celebrate the other holidays together the following year.

If the parents celebrate the same holidays and don’t like the idea of completely missing out on a Thanksgiving or Christmas with the kids, then a split schedule might be a good solution. Having the children celebrate with one parent in the morning and one parent in the evening means that they get to party all day, and they get to spend time with both parents.

In rare cases where couples can spend hours together without any conflicts arising, continuing to celebrate as a family unit might be a good approach.

Keeping things consistent matters for the kids

Whatever approach you decide to take, it is important that you prioritize your children and how you celebrate the holidays. Maintaining the same traditions and making sure they know what to expect around the holidays can take the stress out of the season and make it easier for your whole family to adjust to the new challenges of a shared custody arrangement.