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The holiday season has arrived, and with it comes the opportunity to craft stress free holidays filled with moments that will etch themselves into the album of cherished memories. However, let’s face it: the festive season can swiftly turn into a tumultuous whirlwind of anxiety, endless gatherings, and budgetary constraints. In our pursuit of the “perfect” Thanksgiving or Christmas, the very spirit of the season often slips through our fingers. So, we share our best tips to ensure that your holiday season remains a sanctuary of serenity and joy.
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Simple living tips to truly enjoy the holiday season
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It's just about honest, and with it comes the opportunity to create holiday moments that will fill our lifetimes
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But let's face it, the festive season can quickly turn into a tumultuous whirlwind of activity and anxiety
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There's endless gatherings. And then especially now, here in our country, there's a lot of budget constraints
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So in our pursuit of the perfect Thanksgiving, Christmas, whatever you celebrate in this holiday season
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the very spirit of the season often just slips through our fingers
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So let's talk about some of the things that we do and that we share with our friends and family to help slow down and enjoy the holiday
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season. The first thing that I would like to say is early planning and
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organization, don't wait to the last minute. Now I personally, I am a list
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maker. So I always start by creating a holiday planning schedule and I
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save it every year and I just kind of revamp it depending on who's coming and
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where we're going and all of that kind of thing. So that will help you. You can
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write down everything you would like to do. Everything you you want to do and then prioritize it. You may discover you can leave some things out. You can slow down
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a little bit, make a checklist, and then especially part of this process is establishing your budget
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It will give you some control over your holiday preparations. Now remember, it's okay to say no
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It's okay to say, you know, we've got other plans or I'm not sure what's happening. And it's okay to say no
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planning ahead reduces the likelihood of last minute rush and chaos and a well thought out plan can help you focus on what's really important to you
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Embrace a simplified approach to the holidays to reduce the stress. Begin with a blank schedule and make a note, a calendar, even you even do it on a calendar, of the things you know that you have to do
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There are some things, some family gathering, some work gatherings for some of you that you have to attend
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So make a note of those, plan out a road map, and just ease on through
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Healthy eating during and before the holidays. You know, the holidays are they're all about rich excess foods
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Even in the old days, they had things at Christmas that they didn't have any of the rest of the year
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sugary things. They saved, they barter, they did things to have special treats
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But avoiding stress on your body, eating healthy is part of that
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We have a post on tips to avoid the holiday belly ache and other stomach issues
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You can be sure to check that out. But my first suggestion would be before the holidays come and while you preparing and while you cooking in advance be sure that you getting nutritious food Don overeat during this time Practice portion control
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eating small portions. You can still taste everything. You can enjoy everything, but you're doing
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smaller portions. But especially leading up to the holidays, be sure that you're hydrated because
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drinking water is something that I find a lot of my women friends especially don't do
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every day, but especially during the holidays. It's easy to forget because you got to go here
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and you got to go there and you're cooking this and cooking that and you forget to take
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care of yourself. So stay hydrated. It plays a vital role in your overall health, but it also
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is part of appetite control. It keeps you hydrated. It keeps you alert
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and you're ready to enjoy. If you're tired and wore out, sometimes you'll find if you would just sit and have a cool glass of water
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that you'll feel better. So sometimes just take a break, get you something to drink
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sit down for five or ten minutes, do some deep breathing, and ease on through
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Gift giving. Now, in our family, we don't really focus on the gift giving
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We like to think that if we want to give someone a gift throughout the year
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if we see something that makes us think of someone or that we know they'd like to do, we give
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throughout the year. But we do give gifts during the holiday. But how can you keep it small? Especially
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you know, now in our culture, in our country, things are so astronomically high. So how can you
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still enjoy gift giving and it be special during the holiday seasons? Think about
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personalization of gifts, creative wrappings, colorful stickers. We have some retro Christmas stickers that are replicas of things that my grandmother had on her Christmas tree and in her wrapping paper
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And I love them and I get them every year. Use twine to create unique bows and crafting materials
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Repurpose your old holiday greeting cards. Have you ever gotten a Christmas card and you thought, man, that is just a beautiful picture
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Keep those. And you can use them for gift giving, for name tag
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for pictures or picture board. There's just all kinds of things. I won't go over every step that I've got in the post
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So if you would like to read more about creative gift giving
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you can go over to the post stressful holidays on the farmer's lamp and check those out
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Make your own cards and envelopes. Make homemade gifts. Not a lot of people have those skills anymore
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I love knitting, but I don't do it enough. to be really expert at it
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But I have made some things that I've given this gifts before. But making cookies, a special pie or cake
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making a bunch of different cookies and then putting cookie boxes together
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There's just all kinds of things you can do. Secondhand treasures. I love secondhand shops and flea markets
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So instead of chasing after the latest trends find explore these places these little mom places and you be surprised at the hidden treasures you can find there
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Now, using nature, part of relaxing and staying healthy is grounding, and we have an article
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on the farm stamp about that, but getting outside and gathering pine cones, you know
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touching the trees, touching barefooted in the grass, it depends on where you are, you may not
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can be in the grass in the holidays like I can down here in the deep south but you know exploring
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what's outside using leaves and berries and pine cones and fruits to decorate your home or to
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create an atmosphere we have a Christmas simmer pot that we like to put out during the holidays
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with cranberries and pine needles and clothes I love clothes so you know you can do all those things
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that can create a more relaxing environment. candles. Now, we use beeswax candles, but whatever candle you're comfortable using
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white lights, create a festive atmosphere, but they're very soothing. You can also decorate with food
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Arrange holiday-themed bowls with cookies and treats around when you've got a party, you know
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put out snowmen sandwiches. It's just endless. And I'm not a very creative person, so I know there are endless
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ideas out there. Preserve and decorate an apple with clothes. And, you know, I don't know if you've read it
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but every year I read through the little house on the Prairie series
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it's something I've done since my kids were little. But in one of, in I think it's a little house in the big woods
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Aunt Polly gives Ma Ingalls and Grandma Ingalls an apple that she had put clothes on toothpicks
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I'm guessing I'm not sure what she used, but she's put. them down on the apple and the apple smelled good of course the clothes are fantastic but it was a
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decoration and it lasted for months so you know add a natural touch to your holiday surroundings
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they're very relaxing the thing i would like for you to really be aware of is take care of yourself
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when we first married my husband continually would tell me if you don't take care of yourself how are you
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going to take care of me, the house, everything else that needs to be done. You have to take care
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of yourself. And that was a hard thing for me to wrap my mind around because I had always pushed and
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pushed and pushed and pushed and we just did what had to be done. But he's right. And don't tell
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him I said that, by the way. But while the season is b with celebration and you feel hectic and
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it can it can bring stress and it can bring exhaustion. So take time for yourself. You have to feel energized
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you're going to miss the important parts of the holiday if you're not taking care of yourself
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We use a lot of essential oils, and there are all kinds of ways you can use them
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You can put them into aromatherapy diffusers. We do that a lot
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We even do that when we're ill for colds or special blends you can use
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Aromatic sprays fix you in Epsonsol bath and put you 15 to 20 dock of whatever essential oil you want in there I like to mix rosemary and lavender 15 drops to 20 drops of each in my bath
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It soothes the sore muscles, and Epson salt draws out toxins, and then the essential oils, they just, they can do things for your skin, but they're very calming
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DIY scented candles. I don't buy scented candles because of the formaldehyde and other toxins that are in them
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But you can make them, and they're very easy. They sell candle making kits, and you can use beeswax to do that
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Aromatherapy roll-ons, a friend of mine, she has high anxiety when she goes shopping or in other times, but especially when she's shopping
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So she has an essential oil roll-on that she's made. I hope you can understand my southern
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I'm saying roll-on, you know, the little bottles that have the rolling things
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You put a carrier oil in there and you put some relaxing oils in there. and she puts them on her trigger points and an instant stress reliever
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By incorporating the essential oils into your baths and into your self-care routine
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it's just a way of rejuvenating yourself. But the most important part of enjoying stress-free holidays is to stop and be thankful
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Being thankful is a powerful antidote to all of life stresses, but especially during the holidays because it's real easy for us
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to lose sight of why we're celebrating. So take the time to sit with a loved one, share a cup of coffee, sit on the porch and talk
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and it brings joy, it brings togetherness. You have to let go of perfectionism
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There is no such thing as a perfect holiday because life happens and you might burn the biscuits
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you know, things are just going to happen, but take the time to be thankful, to spend time with the people that you love, the people that you're wanting to please with your holiday preparations
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It's a powerful tool to creating a stress-free environment, is to stop and be thankful
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It's hustle. It's a bustle. It's all around us. It takes energy to not participate in the world system of celebrating the whole
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holidays but a grateful attitude not only affects your own outlook but it's contagious just
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like someone who is bitter and angry they're contagious if you're not careful then the same
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application your grateful attitude affects your outlook and it helps other people it's
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powerful it's a powerful too and so I hope that by focusing on being simple being
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thoughtful, making good connections. It will help keep the spirit of the season alive
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keep you joyful, and allow you to share moments with your family and friends that you might
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otherwise miss. You embark on the holiday season. I hope that it's stress-free. I hope your
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heart is light. Your spirit is merry and you truly enjoy the holiday season
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