How to simplify this holiday season and make it your best one yet!
Are you craving a simple holiday season? Do you want to focus on a few things so that you can enjoy the best things each day brings? Are you generally overwhelmed with the busyness of all the shopping, festivities, celebrations, gatherings, and commitments? I hear ya! I want to encourage you that this time of year doesn’t need to be overwhelming. You can still enjoy your holiday season without all the guilt and overwhelm it usually causes. By focusing on simplifying these four areas, you will find yourself less stressed, more present, and finish the season having actually lived it and not watching it fly by or ending up a Scrooge.
Simplify Your Holiday Decor
How do you feel when you realize it’s time to decorate for Christmas? Do you love it? Or do you have a feeling of dread? For us, Christmas décor easily took up at least half of our storage area. Over the years, I have curated our holiday décor to only include the pieces that are beautiful to us, versatile, working and not broken. If anything wasn’t that, I either trashed it or thrifted it with zero guilt. Zero! And you can, too.
How I Keep Our Holiday Decor Simple
I keep an empty box or bag beside me as I get out the decorations, and everything taken out either gets a spot in the house or it goes in the box. Already decorated this year? No problem. Just do the same method as you are putting your decorations away. There are a few reasons I keep anything else, but just a few. And the best part? I get to choose what those reasons are.
I love a house full of Christmas trees just as much as the next person, but I don’t choose to have one in each room, and that’s ok! We put up one Christmas tree in our house. Can you imagine? We don’t even put up all the ornaments each year. *Gasp! We choose the ones that have meaning, and those are the ones that get a spot on the tree. Sometimes, I even toss ones that don’t hold any meaning at all. *Gasp again! And what about outdoor lights? I love ‘em, but I’d rather enjoy them by driving around for an hour and not taking five hours to put up and tear down myself. But hey! That’s just me. What about you?
When thinking about décor, choose what is best for you and your family? Do you love putting up a tree in every bedroom? Great! Do that. But if it doesn’t make sense for this season or at all, then I give you permission to let. it. go.
Simplify Your Holiday Schedule
You do not have to say ‘yes’ to every invite you get this holiday season. This is a spirited time of year, so there are a lot of things available to do. And simplifying for the holidays is definitely not a popular thing to do (even though secretly I believe most people desire this type of season). I believe you truly want to enjoy it, or you wouldn’t have even started reading this section. Schedules are tricky, I know. You have work things and church things and friend things and neighborhood things and club things and school things and sports things, and all of the things. If you don’t schedule your holidays, your holidays will schedule you!
I love how Courtney with BeMoreWithLess has put it: “It’s easier to take back a no than to take back a yes.” But how do you say ‘no’? First, I think it’s easiest to say no when something is already on your calendar (even if that something is built in rest or family time!) This is where planning really comes in handy. Before December (or any upcoming busy season for that matter), I take control of our calendar.
Take Control of your Calendar for a Simple Holiday
I first schedule time for my husband and time for our family with dates (yep, your marriage should still be a priority through the holiday season) and family nights. That can look like whatever it needs to for your family. For us, it means that Sunday nights we are home by 5 for family electronic-free dinner and family games and movie time. This is life giving! My husband and I have most Friday mornings free, and that is when we spend our intentional quality time together, especially through the holidays. If you don’t schedule these first, they will be the first to go when your schedule gets overwhelmed.
After that, I schedule things as they come to us, and I consider a lot before giving it a permanent place on our calendar. Who does it include? Do we need someone to keep the kids? How many nights that week will we be out? How late will we be out? Do we have something the next day that will require energy and stamina that a late night might hinder? Answering these questions allows me to make the best decision for commitments for both me and my family and make for a simple holiday season.
Here are some simple ways to say “no” to holiday commitments:
No, thank you
I wish my schedule would allow that, but it doesn’t.
I’m sorry, I can’t. (Or no sorry, you really don’t need to apologize.)
I can’t commit to that right now.
Thank you for asking, but I can’t.
No. (It is, after all, a complete sentence.)
Some things require an RSVP and can’t be reversed, but most things (that I can think of anyway) can. It’s ok if you have overcommitted and need to back out, but it’s a whole lot easier to say no to begin with and adjust accordingly.
Simplify Your Holiday Gift Giving
There are so many ways to change the way you give and receive gifts, but again, they aren’t very popular. However, once someone brings it up, many people will quickly jump on board. As you get older, families grow, people get married, have kids, and before you know it, with teachers and neighbors, coworkers and friends, you are shopping for a ton of people. That not only takes a lot of money, it takes a lot of time. And since you just looked at your schedule, time is not something you have a lot of to spend looking for gifts.
Here are some options to simplify gift giving:
Draw names instead of buying a gift for everyone
Opt for an experience instead of exchanging gifts
Choose not to purchase gifts for everyone on the planet (your mail carrier will understand if you don’t buy something for her this year)
Buy the same or similar gifts for everyone or most on your list
I feel like I need to preface this simplification tip with a fact about me: I am not very sentimental, and I love practical gifts. I want a gift that I not only can use, but will use. If I can use it and then throw it away, even better. Therefore, I find zero problem with getting people gifts that are more practical as well. Generally, I will not give you a gift that you can’t wear, eat, spend or consume another way. This makes life so much easier when I am buying gifts.
I don’t care what people say, gift cards are a great gift! Cash or a food basket or a lotion tied up with a bottle of hand soap are all great gift ideas too. The bottom line is if you don’t love your picking out gifts situation, you can change it. There is no rule book on gift giving.
Simplify Your Holiday Expectations
Too often, expectations are the very things that drive us to do too much, buy too much, and be too much in the Christmas season. Our kids expect us to carry out every tradition from all years prior. Our friends expect us to help them all with all the bazaars and fantastical celebrations. Our church expects us to be at all the festivities. And we feel like we are expected to make all the cookies, send all the cards, and hang all the lights because we have maybe done it once or twice before. I’m telling you that you need to put those expectations in the same place as those broken ornaments-in the trash.
I’m not saying to not do anything for anyone else. But rather, consider your heart. Why are you doing the things? Because you have time and you want to serve? Because you have made time to do things with your friends or family? Or is it because you feel like you will let someone down if you don’t.
I’m laying a new expectation on you this holiday season. Do only enough activities that you are present for them all. Hang only the decorations and lights that bring you joy. Buy only the gifts that you can financially and mentally handle. But in all of this, leave enough margin for love and peace and simply being human. You got this. I believe you can.
Interested in all things simple? Check out these other posts!