I love to plan and cultivate Christmasy things for my family + kids. From advent, to cookies, to food, to movies, to books, to matching pjs, to events in our city, to ….. half my plans being cancelled because we just need to chill.
We have lost some cultural identity since cofid. Living abroad, living in what was supposed to be “temporary” housing, missing things that are still in Canada, people we can’t see and connect with , snow culture vs. hot weather culture … big things and little things have just been … different.
When I’m struggling with internal joy sometimes I need an external reminder. (Yes, these can be distractions. Yes, joy is an inside job. YES YES YES.) But we can also shift our environment and recreate connection and belonging and identity: culture. Think of each act of joy in a moment of uncertainty as celebration and defiance to the THIEF who only comes to steal, kill and destroy.
To prepare and plan for the holidays – create new traditions, keep old ones, and remove others – I start with a list and a calendar. If you don’t use a list and a calendar, and have kids, I don’t know how you do life. Consider this slight chastisement ;). (If any of my Beautycounter team is reading this, they all know this is where every action and intention starts.)
- Brain dump all the fun things, activities, traditions, cultivation I want us to do.
- I also define how I want us to feel during this time and after the holidays. (The atmosphere).
- Now, I plug things into the calendar. I list my top threes. If you kids are older or younger, capacity might be different. But I often over plan and over do it, so I usually need to scale back in order for point #2 to be met. How do I want us to feel. I block out days for \ city events, I plan in activities, which could look like: cookie baking, getting Christmas library books, decorating, movie nights, church events, foods to make, friends we want to see, day trips we want to take.
Here is some of my joy + fun check list (NO We will not do all of this…. but I like to have ideas!):
Decorating
- Christmas tree and moving house furniture around
- Kids decorating their room
- Christmas sheets on beds
- Christmas tree decorating
Books / Music
- Library trip for Christmas books for evening reading
- Audio books
- Pull out old CDs from our Christmas box
- Book recommendations from RightBooks4Kids, ReadAloudRevival, and The Peaceful Press
Baking / Food
- German pretzels
- Sugar cookies
- 1 X new cookie recipe
- New Xmas Christmas magazine of baking or cooking or decor
- Flammkuchen
- Special spreads for bread
- Wiener Wurst and potato salad
- Hot chocolate
Advent
- Making advent wreath
- Filling advent calendar
- Book or advent study guide for kids: She Reads Truth or Truth in the Tinsel
- Book or study guide for me from: Annie Downs, Ruth Simmons Chou or She Reads Truth
City
- Ice skating
- Day trip to San Francisco
- City lights
- Christmas performances like the Nutcracker, etc.
Movies
- Elf (for me!)
- The Nutcracker
- Little Women
- Santa Paws (Amelie’s fave)
- Home Alone (scary for little kids and also some inappropriate parts)
One of my fave places for Christmas cozy is Ikea. Hidden gems on a budget!
