As magical and exciting as Christmas time is, it can easily turn stressful and busy. A few years ago, I made some changes to my usual holiday plan so that I could actually enjoy Christmas for myself.
1. Make a list of the shopping, baking, entertainment and crafting items you want to include in your holiday celebration and schedule it into your month. I plan one activity and one creation (cookie decorating or making a gift) each week.
2. Buy early and don't look back. With the exception of a box of Lucky Charms, I am finished shopping! I shop all year long for excellent deals (of course!), take inventory right after Thanksgiving and add a few missing items and the Santa gift right after that. This process saves time and money for sure.
3. Avoid stress pits. These include, major retail stores and malls during busy hours and day of celebration events. I know this sounds a bit bah humbug but do you actually feel festive with hundreds of people pressing in around you or fighting three other shopping carts down the decoration aisle? The lights will be there for many more weeks and the stores open early!
4. Incorporate meaningful traditions. Some of my favorite traditions include, reading Christmas books each night, making gingerbread houses and taking a Tacky Light tour. I'll have a post dedicated to this in a few days.
5. Traveling and gifts. We are traveling this year, the first time with kids. I will be leaving a few things behind for a second Christmas when we come back home for space and loss issues. Instead of giving gifts to the family we see, we will be spending time together on an outing to a movie or a new restaurant. No need to buy or wrap in advance plus the time together is so much better than a gift. I also have less of a need to buy for Afton since she will have 4 other cousin's gifts to be wowed over.
Share your stress buster with me!!
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3 comments:
I love your blog, Liz. You are far too organized! Look at you. I'm getting all stressed just thinking about the upcoming weeks. Maybe I will make a list.
My stress buster is to exercise and take a really hot shower afterwards--alone without kids or rubber ducky.
Wow you are organized. I wish I had as much done as you do. I better get crackin!
I have many lists in the form of bright pink lined post-it notes in front of the keyboard on my desk. When they get too messy, I copy them over and reorganize my brain.
Good ideas!
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