Healthy Holiday (a how-to guide on conquering food stress)

Healthy Holidays! 

Keep Your Digestion Happy and Your Season Bright

By Jhoane Robinson, Co-founder and Herbalist

Holidays are filled with rich foods, sweets, and super busy schedules that can stress not just your emotions. This ‘most wonderful time of the year’ also stresses your digestive system, which can impact your energy, mood, and overall health. 

A happy gut is essential for a healthy holiday season, helping your body absorb nutrients, boost immunity, and stay functioning well through all the festivities. A large part of your immune system resides in your gut, so supporting digestion is important for staying healthy during the hustle and bustle of the holidays. The same applies to your kiddos, too. Luckily, a few mindful habits and Cedar Bear herbal support can keep your digestive system running smoothly, so you can enjoy your celebrations without missing a beat.

Here are some tips to support your digestion and keep you and your gut healthy and happy during the holiday season. 

Eat Smart, Feel Good:

• Mindful Indulgence: Savor your holiday treats and enjoy every bite—your stomach will thank you!
• Balance Your Plate: Pair richer foods with fiber-rich vegetables or leafy greens to promote smooth digestion.
• Probiotics for the Win: Yogurt, kefir, sauerkraut, and kimchi help keep your gut flora thriving.
• Stay Hydrated: Water, herbal teas, and warm broths keep things moving and help prevent bloating. Hydration is essential during the cooler, winter months.
• Ginger & Lemon: Add fresh ginger or lemon to teas or recipes to soothe your tummy and support digestion. 
• Eat smaller, more frequent meals to prevent overeating and ease bloating and digestion issues.
• Don’t eat late: Avoid going to bed with a full stomach. Your digestive system needs at least three hours to process a meal. 

Move, Rest, and Relax:

• Take leisurely walks after meals to promote digestion.
• Practice deep breathing, meditation, or stretching regularly to soothe both your mind and your gut.
• Prioritize sleep to support digestion, metabolism, and immune health.

Digestive Support with Herbal Holiday Helpers

I’m not going to beat around the bush. Keeping your digestive system healthy isn’t easy these days. The foods we usually eat during holiday time can cause more problems than they solve. So, let’s jump right in so you can ‘digest’ how important herbal support is for your health, during winter and all year round. (By the way, I use Cedar Bear herbs every day for my own health support, so I’m not just ‘pitching’ herbal support with Cedar Bear, I live it!)

A strong digestive system is the key to overall wellness—especially during the busy, indulgent holiday season. Healthy digestion allows us to absorb nutrients effectively, boost immune health, support natural detox processes, and even influences mood and energy levels. When digestion is sluggish or out of balance, everything from nutrient absorption to immune function can suffer. That’s why giving our digestive system a little extra support can make a big difference, helping us feel lighter, clearer, and more comfortable throughout the holidays. 

Herbal Holiday Helpers by Cedar Bear®:

• Digestive Build / Digestive Builder for Kids: Strengthens digestion, supports liver function, and promotes smooth nutrient absorption. Helps with reflux, too. 
• Gut Flora Balance / Builder: Supports healthy gut microbes for energy, immunity, and digestion, and helps clear out the unhealthy ones.
• Colon Cleanse / DigestiLax for Kids: Gentle support for regularity, softer stools, and a comfortable colon.
• Stomach Settler / Tummy Ease for Kids / Morning Stomach Settler for Women: These digestive-settling formulas with ginger, fennel, and other herbs help quickly soothe upset or gassy stomachs caused by travel, rich foods, holiday excitement, or anytime nausea strikes.
• Chamomile Relaxer / Calming Chamomile for Kids: Calms and soothes uptight nerves and digestive systems, lessens tension, and promotes restful sleep.

Now that you have your Cedar Bear herbs list, here’s more information on each one, including how and when to use them. 

Go wild! Cedar Bear herbs are not only effective, but they taste great and are fun to use. Add them to your meals at the table, in your tea, coffee, smoothies…

Digestive Build / Digestive Builder for Kids: This newly reintroduced herbal formula helps build stronger digestive systems and liver health.

Originally designed for children and effective enough for adults, Digestive Build is made with burdock, sarsaparilla, dandelion, and Oregon grape roots to help activate and strengthen digestive function, beet root to help maintain digestive integrity, calendula and anise to gently soothe the digestive tract, and lemon peel to add bright digestive support. These herbs work together to stimulate digestive juices, support liver function, encourage a healthy microbiome, and promote smoother, more efficient digestion. 

Two great ways to use Digestive Build and Digestive Builder for Kids: 

1. For digestive support: Take it with a meal. Put it on your food just before you eat, take it directly from the dropper, or mix it into a small glass of water to sip with your meal.

2. For liver cleansing support: Take between meals, either directly from the dropper or mixed into 1 oz of water.

Gut Flora Balance / Gut Flora Builder for Kids

A happy gut leads to a much happier holiday season. Our gut flora—the trillions of microbes that compose our microbiome—plays a key role in smooth digestion, steady energy, and a strong immune system. However, sugar-rich treats, processed foods, stress, and even antibiotic use can disturb this delicate ecosystem, allowing unhelpful microbes like candida to take over. Restoring and protecting gut health starts with daily habits, such as eating unsweetened yogurt or kefir for probiotics, cutting back on sugar and sweetened foods and drinks, and using herbs that naturally support microbial balance. One of the most powerful is Pau d’Arco bark, long celebrated for helping the body maintain a healthy internal environment.

Cedar Bear’s gut-supporting formulas — Gut Flora Balance for adults and teens, and Gut Flora Builder for kids — include Pau d’Arco along with a synergistic mix of supportive herbs to help eliminate unwanted microbial overgrowth while boosting immune resilience and maintaining a healthy microbiome. As you approach the holidays, giving your gut a little extra care can lead to better digestion, more energy, and a season that feels much lighter.

Use the gut flora building formulas between meals, with a small amount of water or unsweetened herbal tea. 

Colon Cleanse and DigestiLax for Kids

When the holidays bring heavier meals, disrupted routines, or more stress, the colon can sometimes slow down—making digestion feel sluggish and uncomfortable. The colon’s job is to remove water from digestive waste and move it along smoothly through gentle muscle contractions. But when stool sits too long, it can become dry and difficult to pass. Hydration, fiber-rich foods (like oatmeal and whole veggies and fruits), and movement all help keep things moving, but sometimes the colon needs a little extra support to stay relaxed, comfortable, and on schedule.

Cedar Bear’s Colon Cleanse for teens and adults, and DigestiLax for Kids for children, offer gentle herbal support when things aren’t moving as smoothly as they should. Colon Cleanse includes time-honored herbs like senna, cascara sagrada, catnip, anise, fennel, and licorice root that help soften stool, relax intestinal tissues, soothe gas, and naturally promote healthy peristalsis while also providing nutritional and antioxidant support for the entire digestive tract. (DigestiLax for Kids is a milder formula developed especially for children.) When you or your little ones need gentle, reliable support for regularity, these formulas help the colon do its job comfortably and naturally.

Stomach Settler with Ginger / Tummy Ease for Kids
Morning Stomach Settler for Women

Holiday indulgences, travel, or seasonal changes can all cause your stomach to feel uneasy. For tummy troubles—whether it’s motion sickness, morning sickness, or discomfort from rich holiday foods—ginger is your go-to herb. Cedar Bear’s stomach-settling formulas combine the soothing power of ginger with catnip, fennel seed, meadowsweet, and peppermint to calm upset or gassy stomachs and even help with queasiness and nausea. These herbs work together to ease discomfort, support digestion, and allow you to enjoy your celebrations without the distraction of an upset tummy. Keep a bottle handy this holiday season to quickly soothe upset stomachs, reduce gas, and promote overall digestive comfort, so you can focus on what truly matters—enjoying the festivities.

Use whenever you need relief from stomach distress and nausea. Take directly from the dropper or mix it in a small amount of water or herbal tea.

These zippy, ginger-based formulas are fun to use anytime and will delight your palate while supporting your health! Add them to your smoothies, herbal teas, holiday mocktails… You can even put some on your salads or other foods!

Chamomile Relaxer and Chamomile Calmer for Kids

Feeling wound up during the holidays? Chamomile Relaxer by Cedar Bear offer a gentle herbal way to soothe your nerves, settle an upset stomach, and help you relax at any time of day. Chamomile, combined with catnip, passionflower, spearmint, valerian, hops, horsetail, and rose, all work together to ease tension, calm nervous energy, and support healthy digestion. Whether it’s holiday stress, a busy day with the kids, or a restless evening, this calming formula helps you release tension and unwind naturally. Chamomile Calmer for Kids is a slightly different version, without valerian root. There’s nothing better for the little ones.

Add Slip Chamomile Relaxer or Chamomile Calmer for Kids to a warm cup of herbal tea at bedtime or anytime a moment of calm is needed. Enjoy the comforting support of a formula that helps you and your children relax, support digestion, and handle holiday stress more easily.

About Cedar Bear®

If you haven’t figured out by now, Cedar Bear isn’t just about great herbal remedies. We are about building a healthier life. For all of us! I was recently asked, ‘WHAT IS MY WHY’ that drives me – along with Carl – to do what I/we do every day – leading Cedar Bear, writing and teaching about health and herbal support?

My ‘Why’ is YOU! I know what it’s like to be sick and tired of being sick and tired. I know what it’s like to be anxious and stressed. I know what it’s like to feel helpless when little ones are sick. I know what it’s like to have hyperactive kids who need focusing and calming. These experiences have driven the creation of many of our Cedar Bear formulas – and what drives us to provide them for you – so you and your loved ones can have a healthier, happier life!

About the TincTract® Process

All Cedar Bear® formulas use the alcohol-free TincTract® process, developed by my husband Carl and perfected by our Cedar Bear team, making every drop of these herbs highly bioavailable, gentle, and naturally tasty—just herbs, glycerin, and water. 

Keep them on hand this holiday season to give your digestive system some extra care so you can focus on what really matters: family, friends, and all the festive fun!

Healthy Holidays to All!

(These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.)