Are your holidays full of frantic shopping trips, rushed efforts to finish baking and forging insincere smiles at yet another party? If so, it’s time for a change. Time to put into action the three ‘Ps’: plan, prioritize and pare down. Sit down as a family and list in order your priorities for the holiday season. Start with your overall goal and work down from there. Have each family member contribute one holiday activity he or she wants to do more than anything else. As for the rest of your holiday traditions, take a poll and see which activities everyone is okay with dropping. Small but significant changes to holiday rituals are the key. Success is found in small steps - don’t try to change all your rituals the first year. Keep the enjoyed holiday traditions which develop naturally instead of the ones that come with a lot of effort or baggage. Keep Things Simple Kids are more likely to remember the holiday traditions they grew up with over specific gifts received.
Emphasize Holiday Experiences Shift the focus from gifts to family time spent together. Demystify the barrage of holiday TV commercials by discussing advertising ploys with older children.
Stress the Religious Focus on spiritual lessons like the meaning of Jesus’ birth or the significance of the menorah.
Contribute to a Charity Teach your children about the importance of giving by purchasing or giving a cherished like-new item to a toy drive, angel tree, or hamper program. Where appropriate, have your child include a handwritten note from ‘Santa’s Helper’. This not only adds a personal touch, it will also enhance the good feeling your child gets from doing a good deed. Keepsake Ornaments Give your children one ornament each year and have them place it on the tree along with all their ornaments from Christmases past. Give each child his or her box to store cherished ornaments.
Read Together Make holiday reading an annual event. Each year add one more holiday book to your collection. Keep the books special by putting them away after the holidays and not looking at them again until a few weeks before Christmas.
Or, maintain a book list of favorite books borrowed from the library and turn hunting for those special Christmas stories into an event. Follow your trip to the library up with hot chocolate and cookies (they don’t have to be homemade). Mark your reading sessions on the calendar to make sure they aren’t missed and read a different story each night.
Give From The Heart Some of the best gifts don’t come with a price tag. Make gifts, give something of your own which has always been admired, or give the gift of yourself. It’s always nice to be able to do something for someone they can’t do for themselves or help them out with something that needs doing.
At first, children might frown at the stapled collection of vouchers. But once they’ve experienced the joy of handing one over that says they can get out of cleaning their room and instead can head out to play – they’re hooked! And, just think of how they would enjoy having the power to stop your ‘get ready for bed’ spiel with a stay up late slip?
Keep a Wish List Throughout the year, whenever your children mention they want something, have them add to their wish list. When it gets closer to Christmas, sit down with them and go over the list. Which items do they still want? Which are realistic? And, which ones can they live without?
Remember a Loved One Lighting a candle, saying a prayer or singing a song for a loved one who has passed helps secure a family bond. I remember the first Christmas after my husband’s Grandma Mary passed away, my mother gave us a candle surrounded by angels. Each year, we light it and sing a Christmas carol in Grandma’s memory. For Grandma carolling was a favorite part of Christmas. |