Navigating OCD Around the Holidays: How to Manage Triggers, Food, Family, and All the “What Ifs”

The holidays can be a beautiful season full of connection, tradition, and intentional pause. They can also be a season where OCD pipes up with a megaphone. Any shift in routine, increase in responsibility, added sensory stimulation, or change in structure can make intrusive thoughts louder and compulsions feel more urgent.

If you’ve noticed your OCD acting up around this time of year, you’re not alone, and you’re not doing anything wrong. This is exactly the kind of season where OCD loves to insert itself. The good news? With the right skills and a compassionate mindset, you can navigate the holidays with more confidence and less fear.

Why Holidays Turn Up the Volume on OCD

Before diving into strategies, it’s important to understand why symptoms often increase this time of year:

• Routines shift

• Travel, crowds, and family gatherings increase uncertainty

• Pressure to create “perfect” memories rises

• Emotional intensity is higher

• Sleep and self-care patterns change

OCD thrives in uncertainty, and the holidays are full of it. So if you’re noticing more anxiety or mental chatter, remind yourself: This makes sense. Nothing is wrong with you. This is simply OCD doing what OCD does.

How to Use ERP Skills During the Holidays

ERP doesn’t get put on pause during December and in some ways, this is when your skills matter most. The following strategies help you manage triggers intentionally and compassionately.

1. Choose Your Exposures Intentionally

You don’t need to challenge every fear at once. Instead, treat exposures like weight lifting. Pick a weight you can lift today.

Each small rep strengthens your ability to tolerate uncertainty.

2. Start Practicing Before Big Events

If you know family dinner will be triggering, try smaller exposures leading up to it:

• Touch doorknobs and wait before washing

• Leave a small stack of things out of place

• Skip one checking behavior

This helps your nervous system warm up instead of entering a holiday event cold.

3. Let Yourself Sit With Imperfect Tasks

Holiday tasks can easily become compulsive:

• Rereading cards

• Adjusting decorations

• Rewrapping gifts “perfectly”

Try embracing a little messiness. Send the card without rereading. Leave the ornament slightly off-center. Wrap the gift without perfect edges. These tiny exposures build resilience you carry into bigger moments.

4. Allow Others to Do Things Their Way

If someone else cooks, loads the dishwasher, or decorates differently than you would, let discomfort be part of your exposure and not a signal that you need to fix something.

ERP is not about achieving calm; it’s about learning you can handle discomfort without controlling it.

5. Let Uncertainty Join You at the Table

OCD will insist you solve every “what if” before relaxing:

• What if the food is unsafe?

• What if the gift wasn’t enough?

• What if someone thinks something about me?

Your job isn’t to answer these questions. Your job is to allow the questions to be there and choose to live your values anyway.

Managing OCD With Family, Food, and Traditions

Family dynamics + rituals + food can create a perfect storm of triggers. Here are ways to soften the edges of the season.

6. Practice Flexibility Around Traditions

Traditions become rigid when OCD takes over. Try embracing evolution instead of perfection. Connection matters more than choreography.

7. Let Holiday Food Be Holiday Food

Practice:

• Eating without over-checking ingredients

• Skipping mental reviews

• Letting go of reassurance seeking

Your body deserves nourishment, joy, and presence, not interrogation.

8. Allow Imperfection in Your Home

If you're hosting:

• Allow shoes inside

• Let people touch things

• Leave cleaning for later

• Let the house be “lived in"

You don’t need a controlled environment, you need a human one.

9. Create Your Own Tradition That Pushes Back Against OCD

Maybe it’s a yearly “embrace the mess” night or choosing one thing each season that you purposefully leave imperfect. Traditions that celebrate flexibility help weaken OCD’s grip.

10. Let Values Lead the Season

OCD says: Control everything so nothing goes wrong.
Values say: Connect, laugh, rest, notice moments, and let life happen.

Values-based living is the antidote to fear-based decision-making.

You’re Not Doing This Season Alone

If the holidays feel heavy, you’re not failing—you’re human. OCD may show up, but it doesn’t get to direct the holiday. Let this season be guided by compassion over perfection, presence over certainty, and connection over control.

If you need specialized support, we’re here. This is the work we do every day at The OCD Relief Clinic. Reach out today.