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Stress Free Christmas
You might say that I have lost my mind if I said that I have a stress free Christmas. Well, my sanity is still intact and we have had several Christmases that were stress-free in the past. I would like to tell you about the things I've learned to help reduce the stress during the Yuletide season.
You might say that I have lost my mind if I said that I have a stress free Christmas. Well, my sanity is still intact and we have had several Christmases that were stress-free in the past. I would like to tell you about the things I’ve learned to help reduce the stress during the Yuletide season.
AFTER WAKING IN THE MORNING, READ GOD’S WORD EVERY
Reading God’s Word seems to be the first obvious task every mom should do, but we sometimes forget that. I need to hear from Him & talk to Him everyday so I am invigorated to be the mom that He wants me to be. During mealtime, we do our family devotions and jumpstart our kids’ day on the proper footing as well. Each of my children know that they are to read the Bible after waking up. There are times ,of course, that one of them needs a little more reminding than usual.
DON’T DO EVERY ACTIVITY THAT COMES ALONG
This seems quite evident, but it took me a decade to apply this. Actually, my marvelous husband helped me learn how to minimize the activity in our lives during the Christmas season.
Back then, I wanted the kids to experience everything that is Christmas. It seems what happened is that I began to harbor uneasiness that would usually blow up around Christmas Eve. (I’m sure nobody has experienced this.)
WHICH ACTIVITIES DO I PICK
What works for our family is to choose 1 or 2 Christmas activities to attend outside our home. Anything else we do is done in our home. One of the best ways this reduces stress is that I am not “persuading” my husband to attend one more Christmas activity each week. He still spends all day working to provide for our family. Consequently, he is much happier going to a few activities and enjoying our family & friends at home.
We enjoy having other people in our home, so we take advantage on this. Our kids help in the cleaning and cooking, so our workload is minimized and I feel stressed when our visitors come.
ENJOY YOUR HOME
I will always have more activities for us to do than we have time for. This past Thanksgiving weekend I decided which activities will wait until next year.
REMEMBER: YOU CAN’T DO EVERY THING, EVERY YEAR.
I try to select activities that help my children to think of others, instead of themselves during Christmas. What we have done in the past is raise money for a missionary family. My kids would take orders for loaves of pumpkin bread and cookies. After baking and delivering them to their waiting customers, they would pay me back for the materials used. The rest of the money is used to buy games and toys that can be used by the needy.
This year we hope to have some kids over our house to bake cookies so their moms can do some uninterrupted Christmas shopping. A Christmas card stamping party for the younger kids would make a swell activity. I’m still thinking on how that will work.
I have some other ideas that are included in Advent, Christmas & Epiphany Celebration Ideas.
LIVEN UP SCHOOL WITH CHRISTMAS
If you homeschool, drop some of your formal schoolwork and have fun during this season. There are myriad of ways of incorporating math, writing & reading concepts as we do baking, shopping and preparing for Christmas day.
At our house, we still read aloud each morning and then work on a Christmas project. This may include handwork type crafts or other quiet projects.
FEELING OVERBURDENED DURING THE HOLIDAYS? Pause right now and rank each activity according to importance. Then, choose only 1 or 2 activities that the whole family will love and do the rest another time.
Enjoy your family being at home. Have another family over to roast marshmallows and enjoy the fellowship. Most of all, keep your eyes focused on Jesus Christ. Without His love for the world, you would not be celebrating the true reason for Christmas.
But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Romans 5:8
For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God. Ephesians 2:8