How to Manage Christmas Chaos
Would you like to have the best Christmas season ever? With Thanksgiving now over and Christmas around the corner, our opportunity to create happy and memorable experiences is right now! Want some tips?
Tina’s Tips for Creating a Meaningful, Fulfilling Christmas Season
- Decide what you want to experience.
- Plan and prep ahead.
- Guard your time. Be prepared to say no OR be spontaneous.
If we don’t approach the Christmas season knowing what we want to do and experience, the commercialism and chaos will overrun us and we’ll be left feeling, well, run over. We’ll feel frazzled, disappointed, and wrung out. Who wants that?
Decide what you want to experience
What I do is write out all the possibilities – everything. Everything I could do. Things I might feel pressured to do. Traditions I usually do. EVERYTHING. Then, my brain feels clearer and I think about what I want to do and experience. I go through the list and prioritize, crossing some things off the list and highlighting other things. It’s fun!
Plan and Prep Ahead
Planning and prepping ahead is key to having positive experiences. Period. Some people feel pushed and suffocated at the very idea of planning ahead. They want the freedom to be spontaneous. Great! Make plans and then be flexible, and plan in free time. You’ll find if you make a plan, you can always change it, but if you don’t make a plan, you’ll probably feel frustrated. Then you’ll look back and realize you didn’t do the things you wanted to do. … Better to take the time and plan ahead. 🙂
Plan your family time, your self-care time (meals, sleep, spiritual practice, exercise), your time to connect with your friends and your community, and plan ahead for Christmas Day and the holiday break. I gather fun things for my family to do over the break and have them ready to go in a special “Family Fun” box. It has puzzles, bubbles, art supplies, movies, balls, books, games, toys… anything I think we might want to grab and play with at a moment’s notice. This box makes for a fun place to go when things start to drag.
Guard Your Time
Things often pop up throughout the season and you’ll have multiple opportunities to participate in things you didn’t plan on. Stay connected with yourself and your family first. Check in with moods and sleep and make sure people are feeling solid. Ask yourself if participating in a surprise activity will bring more love and happiness into your home or if it will just bring stress. Don’t let things crowd out your priorities, like family time, self-care, your spiritual routines, and creativity time. You’ll probably have to say no to some things, so be prepared for that. At the same time, if something comes up that sounds awesome, go for it and enjoy it! That’s part of the fun of the season! Whatever you do, be fully there and enjoy it!
To your health, happiness, and joy-filled holiday season!
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