Ah, Christmas! That season of heartwarming sights and sounds, and traditional gift-giving and kindness. 🎄❄️🎁 It’s a wonderful time to think of the many people in your life; send them cards or give them gifts; celebrate the end of one season and look forward to the beginning of a new one. It’s certainly an idyllic time of the year!
For many of us, however, there is also a realistic side to it, too.😐 Gifts can mean meeting others’ expectations and worrying over expenses. Extra parties and events are so fun, but they can mean a lot of extra time spent running here and there, on top of “normal life” busy-ness.
How to keep the heart of joy in the midst of all the chaos, deadlines, and stress?🤔
You know, I choose to spend my mornings quietly reading my Bible and praying. This sets the tone for my day, and I certainly find a night-and-day difference in how I’m able to handle the rest of my day.
Being intentional about looking for things to be thankful for, saying kind things, and looking for ways to be generous are all practices straight out of God’s Word, the Bible, that are ways that most people agree helps the human heart keep joy in the midst of chaos, deadlines, and stress.
So, for the purposes of this article, I’ve created action steps to help you (and myself!) organize the holidays and keep the most important things first.
These steps are easy and yet significant; they may not solve every problem, but it really does help to take some time to think, make a plan, and take action on it! This is my current version of that!
9 Ways To Prepare For A Joyful Season:
1. Plan. Whether you carefully plan your life or whether this the only season you’d consider it, making even a simple plan can relieve the stress as you make sure that you have a place and time for everything that’s important.
2. Sort. List out everything you want to get done in this season, and note next to each one an approximate amount of time it’ll take. Then add margin for the unexpected or just your guess being off. Then add twenty minutes per kid you have with you, thirty if they are under the age of one.
3. Prioritize. Is it critical to you to make cookies? Or would you rather spend that time reading a Christmas story as a family? Or watching your favorite Christmas movies? If there’s not enough time for everything, move those to the bottom of the list.
4. Swap. Is there anything in your day-to-day routine that can temporarily be skipped to make room for special activities? If so, you can swap it out, knowing you’ll return to it soon.
5. Ask. Check with your family. What memory-making things are important to them? Hopefully, some of those overlap!
6. Map.Schedule a time for everything that’s on the list. Make sure to keep some routine in, too, but you should be able to weave things together.
7. Remember. Remember the big picture: you want to make memories and enjoy life, not be so harried and stressed out that you wish it were over. Take things off if it’s just too much-or delegate what you can! Can you shop from home? Ask your older kids or mother to oversee cookie making? Is your spouse fine with extra driving duties so you can get those Christmas cards out? Teamwork will get it done, and draw you together, not apart. Also, some things can simply be done every other year, too.
8. Save. Is there anything that can be saved for later? Do you need to host a big party before Christmas, or could you do it the week after? We love to go ice skating, but it’s not a timed event that goes away after the holidays, so we like to save it for afterwards.
9. Rest. Plan space to pause. For yourself, and for your whole family. Cramming everything in can work, but is it the best way?
It’s Worth It
Deep down, all of us really want to enjoy the holidays. It’s a time of hope and joy, and we know that. So, I would really encourage you, don’t lose sight of that in the often-mundane details. It doesn’t have to be perfect to be memorable, or lovely. Embrace the sweet moments and what you do have to enjoy, and everything else? Well, it either wasn’t important anyway, or, if it is, you can embrace the heart of the season: hope for the future!
Taking a little time to plan this out can help when you launch into the active parts of it all. That way, you can find space to pause and reflect on the joy of the season. This Christmas, I would invite you to live in the moment. There’s only one Christmas this year, so why not make the most of it, by really enjoying it? 😄