With Christmas in just a few days, it can start to feel like crunch time… especially when it comes to Christmas traditions!
If you’re like my family and have slowly started to add more and more fun traditions to your Christmas season, it can feel a bit overwhelming if you think you need to do them all before Christmas day.
From 12 days of Christmas, to making baked goods for all the neighbors, to sledding parties, holiday movie marathons and decorating gingerbread houses; the yearly traditions can really add up.
So today, I’m giving you permission to let go of the check-list and as a family choose a few traditions to focus on before Christmas.
Here’s a few thoughts about simplifying your Christmas traditions:
Tips to Simplify Traditions
1) Pick your top 3 traditions as a family. Gather with your kids. Make a list of all your Christmas traditions and pick your top 3 to focus on during the holiday season. Designate time and energy to those few favorite traditions and make them meaningful. Whatever you don’t do before Christmas, you can always do another time (and FYI, it doesn’t have to be during the holiday season. Ever gone caroling in the summer time?!)
2) Remember the why behind it. Treats don’t have to be homemade, Christmas cards don’t have to be mailed and you don’t have to host or attend all the Christmas parties. Don’t just do things to check them off the list. Do them because you love your why behind doing it.
3) Embrace the now. Usually the best memories are made in the moment. Not everything has to be planned or scheduled in advanced. If we let go of the long list, we’ll find more time for spontaneity.
4) Spread the Love. While Mom might as well be named ‘Mrs. Clause’ during the holidays, there’s certainly nothing wrong with delegating tradition tasks to family members. You can even invite other families to join you in a tradition so everyone can contribute.
5) Ask yourself what you want. For parents, we can fall trap to making Christmas a special time for our kids, but fail to make it special for ourselves. So, take a moment and share with your family what you’d really enjoy during the holiday season and for heaven’s sake, make it happen for you!
Keeping Christmas simple makes it even more special. From my home to yours, I wish you a very Merry Christmas, friend!
-Katie Your Simply Home LLC.
Comments