Anxiety and Thanksgiving

Wishing for simplicity, a holiday without stress and big overwhelming to dos, but a family connection based on closeness and interaction not food or strife....
    I love holidays, especially the wintery ones but the dark side of them does seem to be strife, disappointed expectations and stress and grandiosity around food. Not in the way "oh, I ate too many calories" way just all the meanings and must haves and traditions and complex creations.
 We (I really mean me) are hard wired around the holidays. Example: Target puts up Christmas decor and I feel an irrepressible urge to purchase. I fight it. It's not really me but I am still Pavlov's dog salivating over  Baubles and Toys and Wrapping Paper.  Example: I feel like Dec 25 didn't really happen unless I make our particular recipe for frosted cut out cookies. Example: a small bit of myself braces for some wine driven emotional blow out every Thanksgiving.
But there is hope, which I like to think of as one of the primary reason for traditions, the hope to carry forth. My hope is in new traditions that fit me and my family and my reality. Example: a hike every Thanksgiving morning, festive tree trimming at a family friends house, wintery pajamas on my darling kids, helping those with less than we, stocking stuffing and fireplace snuggles Christmas Eve with my husband, mimosas Christmas morning, setting free wishes and desires on New Year's Eve into the night... These are the Things that squash some of the anxiety and strife.
They are the things which I hang hope on like a star on the tree, glimmering.
Glimmering enough to banish the dark and fear .
Glimmering towards a better holiday traditons for all of us.
 That glimmering is a good reason for thanks giving, a move from the old cycles and handed down grief to new choices, traditions and hope.