Bringing Your Partner Home for the Holidays

Inviting your partner home for the holidays may seem like a dream come true. What’s better than introducing the one you love to the family you love? But after you struggle to share a bathroom with seven people, you might be rethinking your idea. You can feel completely out of control and alone, despite the fact that you brought your honey home with you.

During the holidays, families come together and almost inevitably invade personal spaces. It’s just the very nature of the holiday season. Unfortunately, it can be quite detrimental to the key components of your relationship: sex and romance (Raley, Crissey, and Muller, 2007).

What can you do when your mom is yelling at you for help from the kitchen and your boyfriend is casting an awkward glace as you leave him stranded with crazy Uncle Eddie?

We’ve compiled a list of much-needed tips to help you and your partner stay close during the holiday season:

1. Go to bed early. Make it a habit to go to bed ahead of the time you normally do. That way, you’ll have extra time to spend alone with each other. Talk about the day’s events, flirt, or simply hold each other close each and every night.

2. Stay at a hotel. Do this for your entire trip or the last couple of days during your stay. It’ll give you a much-needed break from the family noise and allow you to shower in peace. It also goes without saying that intimacy will be much easier to enjoy without the constant fear of family interference.

3. Hold hands. This is the one use of affection that is comfortable to do in front of all family members. When your partner looks lonely or needs saving from an over-talkative relative, grab his hand and pull him close to you.

Remember that if your relationship can survive the holidays, it can survive anything.

Sources:
Raley, R., K., Crissey, S., & Muller, C. (2007). Of sex and romance: Late adolescent relationships and young adult union formation. Journal of Marriage and the Family, 69(5), 1210–1226.

By Brittany Roshelle Davis