The holidays can be challenging when you’re newlyweds. Mainly because you both you’re your own unique holiday and family traditions that you hold dear to your hearts and would like to continue to uphold.

Sometimes these traditions conflict. For instance, if one of you always had a live, Douglas Fir Christmas tree when growing up, he or she probably won’t like an artificial tree very much. These conflicts can cause you as a couple a lot of stress and put a strain on your marriage.

Here are some tips to help you avoid such conflict this holiday season.

Plan ahead

Have a conversation about your holiday traditions and make a list of all the traditions, big & small, from both sides of the family. Then go through the list together and decide which ones you would love to keep and which ones you can do without. If you have kids, ask them their wishes for the holidays.

Make new traditions from the old ones

Look for ways to combine the family traditions that you have decided to keep. The idea is to come up with a new set of traditions from the old ones depending on what works best for your family. This way you both get to keep the most important aspects of your holiday & family traditions. Don’t forget to take cultural differences into account when merging your traditions.

Compromise

Compromise is very important to this process. You may think that your spouse’s traditions are ridiculous but you must be prepared to compromise. It’s not a good idea to try to convince them to give up holiday traditions that are important to them.

Keep family recipes

Food is a touchy subject so it deserves a special mention. It is one area where compromise may not be the best solution.

No one wants to give up a recipe that has been in their family for generations. Thankfully, you can have it all! There’s nothing wrong with having two deserts for Christmas if they are both family recipes.

With the above tips, you can greatly reduce the chances of conflict over family traditions this holiday season.