Holly Jolly Help for the Holidays

You don’t need to watch movies like Christmas Vacation or Home Alone to know: holiday disasters happen. We’ve all burnt the odd turkey, forgotten to buy someone a gift or had in-laws outstay their welcome. That’s why this year, PC Mastercard, PC Optimum and PC Insiders are teaming up to talk to Canadians about their holiday disasters, share some fun tips, and help you redeem the holidays.

The first and foremost potential festive fiasco on everyone’s naughty list is (you guessed it) finances. Seasonal spending can, after all, be a big source of stress. In fact, a recent PC Financial survey uncovered that nearly half of Canadians have experienced holiday disasters like blowing their budget (present company included), with a majority admitting they’ve compromised on the number and quality of gifts due to financial constraints.

Next up on the holiday hit list: food. Canadians, it turns out, average a whopping 13-plus hours on planning, cooking, shopping and setup for their big meal, with a startling 34 per cent saying they’d rather go in to work on a Sunday than prep holiday dinner themselves for their extended family! Even picking gifts can make us uncomfortable: many Canadians reported they would rather tackle their home’s snow removal alone for the month of December than buy gifts for their entire household. Talk about wanting to quit Christmas cold turkey!

But don’t despair: there is help for the holiday blues. Top tips from PC Financial to #RedeemTheHolidays include using loyalty points to offset holiday costs and reduce stress. With the PC Financial Mastercard, you can earn 3x the PC Optimum points for every dollar you spend on in-store purchases at any Loblaw affiliate stores (so last-minute saves like grabbing a roast chicken to replace your burnt turkey, or assembling a DIY gift basket for the friend you forgot, may not be so bad after all!).

And that’s not all: with nearly half of Canadians admitting they don’t know who to call for assistance with yuletide disasters (no, 9-1-1 isn’t an option when the dog won’t stop tugging at the tree), the team at PC Financial is providing a new way to help save the season. On December 7th, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. ET, Canadian consumers can call the Holiday Redemption Hotline at 1-833-909-1281 and speak with real-live PC Helpers for advice on how to avoid holiday disasters and let the good times roll from Christmas dinner to New Year’s Eve. The best part? Canadians can phone in for a chance to win PC Optimum points to help redeem their holidays!

We couldn’t be merrier about this yuletide advice! —Vita Daily