Gift exchanges, homework, and vacation plans are all things that most teenagers worry about during the holiday season, but what if you did not have enough money to buy groceries during the holidays, let alone gifts to give to friends and family? During the holiday season especially, the stressfulness of these situations can be magnified to an overwhelming degree.

“Expectations play a big role in the amount of stress that people experience during the holiday season.  Expectations can be either generated internally or be felt like an external pressure from others, but they generally take the form of a list of ‘shoulds,’” said Marci A. Etienne, Ph.D. Director of Counseling Services at Trinity International University and mother of senior Brian Etienne.

When people feel like they cannot meet these expectations, they might feel as though they are being constantly bombarded by them. These expectations become a constant thought in the back of one’s head and make the person feel helpless against them.

According to Etienne, even good things can be stressful, like holiday celebrations.

“The holidays should be wonderful, special, or magical is one type of expectation.  This one is facilitated by how the media portrays holidays as wonderful family gatherings where everyone is loving and exuberantly happy. However, many families or life circumstances won’t allow for that type of holiday experience and that contrast can lead to stress from trying to create that experience and great disappointment when it is not attainable,” Etienne said.

Etienne suggests that images on social media portraying families with tons of gifts and things to be thankful for make those with less feel stressed.

Many area families indeed can’t afford the stereotypical wonderful holiday experience. According to lakecountyhomeless.org’s 2010 Homelessness Counts in Lake County report, 474 people in Lake County fit the federal definition of homeless as of January 28, 2010. A little over 46 percent of these people were part of families.

Etienne suggests simple guidelines to keep seasonal stress in check.

“Be realistic about your limitations in finances and free-time.   You may not have time to attend every celebration you are invited to.  You may not have the money to buy a gift for every friend,” Etienne said.  “Being mindful of these limitations in advance can keep you from overextending yourself and creating stress as the holiday season progresses.”

Emmaus House

Emmaus House, an organization that helps local families in the community financially, works to fight homelessness in the community, and aims to prevent future homelessness, as well as to feed the hungry. About 2.4% of people in the 60047 zip code live below the poverty line, according to zipskinny.com. Emmaus House helps families financially in many ways, from hosting a community dinner every Sunday to paying parts of people’s rent, mortgage, and utility bills.

“The community dinner helps because people do not have money to pay for food on their own. We also have a food pantry as well, so people can spend money they would normally spend on groceries and actually pay rent, pay their mortgage, or pay their utility bills,” Dana Rzeznik, Emmaus House volunteer, said.

Although the community dinners are a big part of the organization, Emmaus House does much more to help out people in need. All in all, Emmaus House helps families to stay in their homes and preventing their eviction or foreclosure, according to Rzeznik.

In total, about 150 to 200 people on average attend dinner every Sunday at St. Francis de Sales Parish’s Emmaus House, but the number increases to about 220 to 230 during a holiday, according to Rzeznik.

“It’s a very heartwarming feeling to work with the people we work with,” Rzeznik said.

If you would like to help Emmaus House and community members during this holiday season, consider volunteering at or donating to St. Francis de Sales.

Gift of Love

In a season based on gift-giving, one program’s mission is to help make sure every family can provide presents to celebrate the holidays.

National Honor Society (NHS)  members organize Gift of Love each year, where students and school faculty can sign up to sponsor an anonymous individual or family in need by buying gifts and gift cards for that participant.  When the day comes to turn in the purchased gifts, the sponsor wraps and brings the gifts to the table during their lunch period.

“We have a stockpile of people in need [who are] anonymous. We don’t actually know their names, just ages, and they list three things they need or want for Christmas and along with each person you also give a ten dollar gift card to a grocery store, so that we can guarantee that they have food,” Sophie Zaccarine, senior and NHS president, said.

NHS brings the gifts to St. Francis de Sales Parish, who also sponsors a Gift of Love program each year. When it is time for the sponsorees to pick up their Christmas gifts, they come to the church where volunteers are there organizing the event and carrying gifts to cars.

“An experience I remember really well was when I did this through St. Francis and I was helping to pack up the gifts and organize them. I saw people receiving gifts and they were always very excited to receive them,” Rachel Burroughs, senior and NHS member said, “It’s just great to see the impact you can make on someone’s life in a small way.”

Bike Drive

Boy Scout Troop 309 is helping less fortunate kids in the area through a bike drive. In this drive, the troop accepts donations of bikes, and then fixes and cleans them before giving them to less fortunate families in the community.

“The bikes come from people all over the community, and a lot of bikes donated come from [St. Francis de Sales]. The drive is going really good this year. We have 84 bikes, but will have 88 bikes when we finish,” said Luke Thurston, freshman, who is running the project this year after participating in years past.

The Boy Scouts, along with adult leaders, work to repair the donated bikes to get them ready to distribute to local families.

“Some of them go to St. Francis de Sales people, some go to other churches. It’s kind of a broad region,” Thurston said.

Many Scouts, as well as individual families within the troop, have participated in the bike drive for years.

“My dad started helping as an adult leader four or five years ago with my brother Eric. Eric led the drive three or four years ago, and my other brother Nick led the drive around two years ago. I led it this year, it’s kind of a family thing for us,” Thurston said.

In order to help the troops, Thurston has only one suggestion.

“Donate bikes, just donate,” Thurston said, “that is what makes the difference, having the bikes to fix.”