I will freely admit that I love the Christmas Holiday Season. Maybe it’s because my birthday is on Christmas I’m not sure, but I know I love spending time with my family and friends and celebrating traditions together. While I do love all of the good things the season brings, the celebration of the spirit of Christmas. I know that everyone doesn’t share the same beliefs but they are important to me and I try to make sure that I focus on gratitude and appreciation for all, including those with different beliefs.
With the good comes the bad and the hustle and bustle of the holiday season brings a lot with it that can quickly dim your holiday spirit. The pressure of finding the perfect gift, crowds and lines should when you visit the stores, worry about packages arriving in one piece and on time, hosting dinners, attending parties, and dealing with the family tensions that often arise. Any and all of these things can steal your focus and cause a major distraction, even for those of us that love the season.
So what do you do to hold on to that holiday spirit it the midst of the holiday crunch? For me it’s a few things.
- One, I like to plan things out, lists of who I need to buy for and ideas of the gifts I’d like to give (this can and does change frequently, but gives me a great start.
- Sometimes I buy gifts throughout the year but I often forget about them and find them later.
- As much as possible I start early, not as early as my mom who likes to be done in October and no matter what I always have something to do at the least minute, I’m still working on reducing that down as much as possible.
- Treating myself. I swear I can never find as many things for myself as when I’m shopping for others so a treat of something that no one else will get me always makes me feel good.
- Remembering that things don’t have to be perfect. The holiday spirit is about gratitude and appreciation so making the effort is enough and if something does not turn out perfectly it’s going to be ok.
- Accepting my friends and family for who they are and not expecting them to be who I want them to be. This is a hard one as we all know that are friends and family know how to push our buttons like no one else.
- Staying grateful for everything that I have and remembering what is important. It’s not about gifts and decorations or even the food. I have a lot to be grateful for and it is important to always keep that in mind.
- Remembering that the holiday spirit means positivity gratitude and kindness to me so I work really hard to hold on to those things and share and spread them to others.
For this Christmas baby there is nothing like the holiday spirit. No matter if your holidays are spent bundled up in snowy weather, warm and hot with not even a thought about snow or cold, filled with a big freshly cut tree, the tree that you use every year, a tiny tree that’s still full of spirit, or even no tree at all, whatever you celebrate, however you celebrate it’s still a wonderful time of the year.
How do the holidays make you feel?
-Trina