I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday with your family and friends last week. Hopefully you have finished all the turkey leftovers and now you are beginning to think about preparing for the Christmas season.
Your family most likely has created many traditions that you look forward to each year. Decorating your home, attending programs that your children perform in, sending Christmas cards, baking favorite recipes and gathering gifts. Most likely just thinking about how you are going to work all these extra events into your already busy schedule is exhausting for you. I thought I might share some ways to cut back on the demands for your time so that you can still enjoy this joyous holiday.
First make sure that when you are decorating the home and tree that all family members are present to help. You can designate tasks for everyone which lightens the load and stress of the work. Also everyone can take ownership to their part of the experience to carry on the traditions. Then have everyone write their own Christmas cards. It will become more meaningful to them and it developes a skill of writing that is becoming a lost art. When baking your favorite holiday treats pick one a week to bake and then freeze what you will need for your special event. That will leave the most time consuming and expensive which is the shopping for gifts. You might consider limiting your children or family members to three gifts each. Just as Jesus received from the wisemen on that first wonderous Christmas. Your family could also draw names or make their gifts. Set a dollar amount or decide on a theme to make it fun and creative. The holiday becomes materialistic only if you allow it.
So consider these thoughts to make your Christmas less stressful and get back to the real meaning of Christmas.
Peace and Grace
Gina
