Is it me, or has Christmas gone a little out of control this year? A quick flick through social media this afternoon and in five minutes I have seen several “Christmas Tree of the Year” contests, “limited edition” Elf on the Shelf sets worth over £300 (seriously? I don’t even spend that on my family, let alone a doll!) and personalised dogs’ Christmas stockings.
Experiences, not things
Don’t get me wrong, I love Christmas. I can’t wait to head home to my parents, our extended family of cousins and their littles, and friends I haven’t seen since the summer. We’ll sip hot chocolate in our favourite cafe in the high street whilst listening to carollers, crunch along icy paths to the greengrocer’s on Christmas Eve morning to nab the best veggies, and delve into a giant tin of Quality Street.
When I think of Christmas, I think of my favourite people, my favourite places and my favourite food. I think of old family traditions, and the new ones that we are making together. I think of the precious people we have lost this year, and how we’ll be honouring them under the Christmas tree in church on Christmas Eve. I think of the cheesy Christmas tunes – the words to which I am teaching Mr 6 so that he can sing them as we do silly dances in Nana’s kitchen.
None of this costs money. None of this merits desperate shopping trips,
queues and debt come January.
So this time, I’m keeping it simple. This year has been good to me – it’s taught me to live with less, to make the most of what we have, and to make room for what really matters. We’ve been decluttering, down-sizing, planning… and that includes Christmas.
How to simplify your Christmas: My 10 tips
So here are a few of my tips to simplify your festive season, so that you have more time to enjoy the things that really matter.
- Budget: Agree a budget for gifts with your family and stick to it. Think thoughtful gifts, not expensive.
- Shopping: Shop local wherever possible. Small businesses and local sellers often have an online presence too, if you want to avoid the crowds and stress.
- Giving: Choose to gift experiences instead of things – less to wrap and less clutter for the recipient. You could consider meals out, gift vouchers, memberships and tickets to events – or homemade vouchers for a service that you can offer such as babysitting, or sharing a talent.
- Focus: Write a list of everything you need to do and buy. Then review it to cross off anything that isn’t absolutely necessary.
- Traditions: New traditions such as Elf on the Shelf and Christmas Eve boxes are expensive and give you more to do. Pick your favourite tradition and concentrate on that – don’t feel pressured to try everything that everyone else is doing.
- Crafts: Christmas crafting is fun, but don’t feel you have to recreate everything you see on Pinterest! Choose one or two crafts – especially things that you could give as gifts or use to decorate.
- Decorations: Re-use last year’s decorations. New colour schemes are lovely, but decorations collected over the years mean more. Let go of your perfectionism and let the children decorate the tree. One less thing for you to worry about, and something to keep the children occupied.
- Consumerism: Christmas is the marketer’s dream. Don’t let them in – unsubscribe from marketing emails, keep focused on your list, and remember: most of the pretty Christmas decor that you see in the magazines was actually styled and photographed months ago. They’ve moved on already – so can you!
- Me Time: Schedule some “Me Time” – this is your Christmas too. Delegate tasks to family and friends and don’t be afraid to ask for help.
- “Done is better than perfect”: We all want the perfect Christmas, but it’s not worth the overwhelm and stress. Learn to let go and focus on the real reasons for the festive season, whatever that means to you. Family and friends want to spend time with you – not your stunning table setting or your co-ordinating decor.
If you need a helping hand, contact More Organised to schedule your free of charge consultation, and let’s start talking about your more organised Christmas!
I’d love to hear how you are celebrating the festive season this year! Happy Christmas!
Lovely post, Mel. So many useful tips….Christmas really is a marketer’s dream, isn’t it. It’s lovely to pause a moment and think about what really matters 🙂
So true Mel! We are so lucky to be escaping this year and to be spending the festive season in a quiet little village, having fun together as a family. Priceless. X
That sounds heavenly! Enjoy every minute. Happy Christmas!
Love your blog post and 100% agree. Last year I started actually consulting the family (!) and the things that mattered were the only things that got added to the list, so out went a complicated, activity-based advent and in came the old-fashioned “chocolates from Woolies” advent!
I wrote a similar post on 28Nov if you’d like to take a look!
Thanks Marcia. I read your post and loved it – particularly the bit about consulting with family. So much of our stress around Christmas is caused by doing what we think others want, without really stopping to find out! Happy Christmas… it sounds like yours will be lovely.