Celebrate the holidays this year with intention!! I’m bringing you 12 Mindful Days of Christmas – a series all about celebrating the holiday without buying a bunch of gifts for others! You can check out all the other days in the series here!
Welcome back to the 12 Mindful Days of Christmas series! I’m excited to be sharing these fun ways to celebrate the holidays with your friends and family without overspending and getting stressed out!
Day one was all about having a swap meet – a fun and free way to trade what you have and don’t want anymore (whether it is Christmas decorations, clothing, gifts, toys, anything!) with your friends for things they have and don’t want anymore!
Day two we spent cuddled on the couch for family movie night! Bust out the popcorn, snacks, fuzzy blankets, and cozy pajamas friends and enjoy a night in with your favorite family Christmas movie!
Day three we got competitive and busted out some of our favorite family board games and activities!
Day four was all about visiting loved ones that are in assisted living or nursing homes. Or, just visiting those places to visit with the residents – even if you’re not related to them!
Day five we talked about hosting a cookie swap for all your friends!
Day six was for all the at home and drive through chefs out there who can deliver a meal to a friend or family member!
Day seven focuses on breaking out an Advent calendar to count down the days until Christmas!
Today’s activity is a really simple one but one I’m encouraging you to think a little differently about for the holidays!
12 Mindful Days of Christmas
If you’ve ever hosted a dinner for your family or friends during the holidays, you know how stressful it can be! Trying to coordinate time and place with everyone, decide who is going to be bringing what dish, and keeping the “family peace” is a full time job in and of itself!
In addition to that, it is one of my dreams for Chris and I to be able to celebrate Christmas without the stress of traveling for hours to see family thrown in there. As much as I love them and enjoy spending holiday time with them, I feel as though we have never had a Christmas that was just our family – the three of us – because we always have to rush through our holiday in order to drive for hours to see our family.
So this year, instead of stressing over all of that stuff, just have dinner with your family. Your kids. Your husband. It doesn’t have to be on Christmas day (but man that wouldn’t be nice?) but plan a night and make a big deal of having a really nice, intentional dinner together as a family.
We try to eat at the table every night together but let’s be honest – it is rushed and we are always on Jett to eat eat eat and none of us ever really truly enjoy it. It would be so awesome to take a whole afternoon and evening to cook a meal together, let Jett decide what part of it would be and help make it, and then to sit down and take as long as it needs to take to eat it. Maybe I’m just living in a dream world but that seems so peaceful and more enjoyable than all the other holiday drama that can sometimes come at mealtime.
So just some “food for thought” so to speak – have you considered taking a night off for you and your family to just spend together during the holiday season?
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This is such a good idea. Some years we barely squeeze out Christmas in because we’re running around, so we started taking a day together to have a big meal where my husband smokes a bunch of meat and we serve everyone’s favorite apps with it. Sometimes it’s even on New Year’s, but at least it’s a set time together!