For many of us, Christmas is a joyful and festive time. For others, it can bring on some unnecessary stress.

Lucille Williams is a national speaker, author and podcaster. She says there are many ways we can avoid a Christmas meltdown.

"I had to figure out how to redo Christmas because there was one Christmas where everything, you know culminates up to that day. The morning of Christmas, my husband had the kids in the car and I barricaded myself in our bedroom, crying and shaking, having a meltdown saying, I don't wanna go, I don't wanna go, because they were on their way to my mom's house."

It was then Lucille realized that things needed to change. One of the first things she says to do is to prioritize what's important. 

"My husband and I finally had to say we have to do Christmas differently and the next year, it started with just a meeting where we discussed what was important to us and how were we going to do Christmas minus the meltdown," said Lucille.

Lucille says for years she was too busy cooking, baking, cleaning and prepping stuff that she missed out on the important stuff.

"I realized it's about the people and the relationships, and I want to spend time with my kids. I don't want to be preparing and cooking and baking and cleaning and doing all those things. I don't want to miss it," said Lucille.

"I was missing the holiday and I didn't want to miss it anymore."

Another way we can avoid the Christmas meltdown is to start a list of have to, want to and whatever. She says once she started doing this, things became a whole lot easier. 

Today on Connections, Lucille shares more tips with us on how to avoid the Christmas meltdown.