As the holiday season approaches, our schedules often get busier and the purse strings get just a little tighter too. How can you enjoy the season of giving and receiving without being swept away by the busyness of it all? Here at Make Great Days we like to remind ourselves often that making your day great requires intentionality. Our Days don’t make themselves. If you want to enjoy the holiday season with your loved ones without feeling frazzled on Jan 2. Then make some choices that will help you stay on course to achieving a peaceful and even memorable holiday.
what people most complain about during this time of year is that their schedules are too full and the shopping is too complicated. It’s natural that we want to celebrate, spread some cheer, be thankful, and show our endearment for others through the giving of gifts. But can’t all of that happen without the endless list of parties and events to attend?
Some of the ways we have discovered to stay on top of our schedules include creating a holiday calendar. You may remember the Christmas Movie with Matthew Broderick and Danny Devito, called Deck The Halls, in which Matthew Broderick after a difficult childhood sets out to create the best Christmas Memories he can with his family. His desire to create something special turns into controlling minute by minute scheduled events and activities that leave the family feeling more stress than Christmas Joy.
Here is how to create Holiday memories without overloading your calendar and stress level.
1. Make a list of all of the possible holiday parties and activities you would generally participate in. This means everything from your neighborhood party to the downtown Tree lighting ceremony, and the school Christmas Cookie sale too!
2. Get out your blank, working calendar pages and pencil in family events that are your top priority. For example, maybe you’ve planned Christmas Family Pictures at the Christmas Tree Farm…that gets top priority. Then move on to kids activities and/or productions they may be involved in. Examine the lasting value and overall benefit to the entire family. Classroom parties, generally happen during the school day, but what about after school hours parties at the homes of other classmates? Will you participate in those? How many? You may want to wait to schedule that in until you have looked over the entire list of possible Holiday Activites. What about the office party? Are you required to be there? Will it happen after office hours? Will there be a neighborhood open house? Once again, rate the benefit to the entire family if you should choose to participate in this event.
3. Write in your prioritized events onto your master Holiday calendar. Once you have made a list of all the possible Holiday activities and their level of benefit to your family, then you can begin to pencil in your first draft items that you would like for each member of to family to participate in.
We suggest establishing a rule for how many nights you are willing to be out of your house per week during the Holiday season. (This is a great general rule to maintain throughout the year.) Keeping everyone close to home for a set number of nights per week actually increases productivity and the level of peace each family members experience. Don’t let the Holidays produce stress for your family. Take a breath and enjoy a calm and peaceful Holiday schedule.