Plan Next Holiday Season Right Now
Now that the holidays are over, your first instinct is probably to pack up the ornaments, wrapping paper, cookie molds and stockings, and get on with your real life. If you’re like most Americans, that includes finding a workable payment plan for your maxed-out credit cards and a diet for your maxed-out body.
As one reader said to me, “I can make it through the holidays. But the post-holiday letdown really gets to me.” What she was referring to was the New Year’s realization that she’d spent too much money, eaten too many pieces of fudge, yelled at her kids too many times and invested too much in trying to create a picture-perfect holiday, only to hear her kids complain about being bored with their expensive new toys.
I’ve talked to so many people who tell me that the holidays have become one of the most complicated, unsatisfying times of the year. In their hearts they know something is wrong, yet they repeat it year after year. Part of the reason is that by the time the next holiday season rolls around, they’ve forgotten how stressful it was to have to buy expensive gifts for 20 people, to travel hundreds of miles at their least favorite time of year to be on the road, or to attend endless Christmas parties when they’d rather be home with their family.
It’s understandably tempting to stuff the trimmings back in the attic and forget the whole thing until next year, when you go through the same routine all over again. But this year do something different. Those who don’t examine the past are bound to repeat it. In that spirit, I encourage you to stop and take stock. Evaluate your holiday season while it’s still fresh in your mind and make some concrete decisions about next year.
Gather the family around for a Monday morning quarterbacking session, with each of you making lists of what you liked and what you didn’t like about the way you celebrated the holidays. You may have to compromise when your lists don’t all coincide. But, for next year, agree to eliminate the things you don’t really enjoy doing.
When I ask people to reflect on their favorite things, the answers seldom have anything to do with cards, gifts or food. I’ve never heard anyone say they love dashing out on Christmas Eve to buy more presents. Rather they talk about the simple, magical, nonmaterial aspects of the holidays: the excitement of leaving a plate of cookies and a glass of milk for Santa, laughing and talking in the kitchen while making fudge, listening to the choir sing at midnight services, watching the candles glow on the mantel and the lights blink on the tree, delivering gifts to children at a local hospital or simply greeting neighbors or friends with a genuine compliment that makes their day.
Once you know what you truly love about the holidays, then it’s time to make a decision. Decide what you can change next year so you have time to do the things you love; then eliminate the things you don’t enjoy. The best time to make this decision is now, while everything is still fresh in your mind. Just imagine what it would be like to enter the next Christmas season full of anticipation instead of dread. We all have it within our power to restore the meaning of Christmas and to make it a time of joy rather than a time of stress. There’s no time like the present to start.
Elaine St. James is the author of “Simplify Your Life” and “Simplify Your Life With Kids.” For questions or comments, write to her in care of Universal Press Syndicate, 4520 Main St., Kansas City, MO 64111 or e-mail her at estjames@silcom.com.