By Peggy O'Farrell
The Cincinnati Enquirer

Can't handle another frazzled season of holiday parties, cookie baking and 12-course meals?

"Skip it," says Christine Klein, the Kenwood writer and Cincinnati's guru of simplicity.

Klein isn't suggesting ignoring the entire holiday; she just advises cutting out the parts that aren't fun.

It's perfectly all right to simplify life by scaling back your holiday schedule, says Klein, author of 2001's The Simpler Family (Robins Lane Press; $16.95).

"I always say to people, if you truly enjoy it, go for it. If it's so much work that it's not fun anymore, then start looking for things to eliminate," she says.

Klein's suggestions for a simpler Christmas:

• Lower your expectations. "You're not Martha Stewart, and you shouldn't expect your house to look like Martha Stewart's, or your food to taste like hers. You're going to have relatives come over who are going to be irritating, and it's not going to be the Hallmark moment that you really want it to be. If people would realize that sooner, they'd be happier."

• Plan the celebration that makes you - not your parents or in-laws or neighbors - happy. "A family should celebrate Christmas the way they want to celebrate it, not the way they think other people expect them to celebrate it."

• Don't be afraid to edit. "You shouldn't feel obligated to do everything that's associated with the season. If sending Christmas cards is an overwhelming task, don't do it. It's OK not to do it."

• Find time for family-only fun, "even if it's just walking around the block and looking at Christmas lights. Sometimes you have so many obligations that you never spend time just as mom and dad and the kids doing something meaningful."

• Delegate. Appoint one person to make cookies, another to send out cards and somebody else to write the Christmas letter, make the fruitcake or whatever. Rope in friends and siblings, if necessary.

Klein and her family live the simple life they advocate: They don't go to many parties, they don't make an elaborate meal and they don't hang up lights - outside, at least.

"My kids love to have the lights, so they decorate their own rooms with Christmas lights. It's a way for them to get what they want and not bother anybody else," she says.