How to Keep Your Sanity During the Holidays
We all have these perfect pictures in our heads of how it should be…..
but reality kicks in.
Do you remember the show Leave it to Beaver? The house was always clean, the mom was in a dress, apron and her hair was always in place. I think this show has scared our outlook on how we need our homes to look and function. Even at the holidays, June Cleaver had the perfect house, the perfect tree and the turkey were amazing looking.
We need to learn how to keep our sanity during the holidays and not fall into the perfect Christmas card idea.
This was where it all started going downhill for us homemakers that live in the real world. TV shows that depict the perfect holidays are so unrealistic. Your perfect holiday looks different than what I would call perfect.
How do you keep your sanity during the holidays?
This was a question that I shot out on facebook. I asked my friends what they do to keep their sanity during the holidays. I got several answers. It was actually fun to see the responses. Some came across as practical tips and some came across as what they desire to do during the holidays.
This made the point I knew to be true. We all try to ignore the reality and strive to have the perfect holiday. I had many to say they try to keep Jesus as the reason for the season. Agreeing with this statement fully. I think we need to keep our feet grounded and know what we are celebrating.
What do we have to do to keep Jesus the center of the season?
After posting the question on Facebook, how to keep your sanity during the holidays, I got some really good tips. There is a couple of tips that I am going to implement immediately. Let me share what I learned from friends.
Amazon Wish List Have your teenage and adult children create a wish list on Amazon. I think this is brilliant. The list can be viewed just by using the email address that it was created with. You can view their choices. The Amazon Wish List can be used to keep up with things that you want to purchase later and just want to save it.
Shop and Wrap ahead of time. Don’t wait until the last minute to shop. In fact, wrapping gifts 10 minutes before I gave the gift to the person has been common. Make a point to wrap the gifts when you bring them into the home. Don’t put it off. Set up a wrapping station in your basement, laundry room or maybe the extra bedroom. This will make it easier to stay on top of it.
Cook ahead and freeze. You can bake most desserts and freeze them ahead of time. Casseroles and bread can be made ahead. I have a wonderful pin on my Holiday Christmas board that is for make-ahead Thanksgiving meal. Be sure to follow that board for more great tips coming your way.
These next two are hard
Set Boundaries I love this one. Setting boundaries are something that I have had to start doing for our family. I have to set boundaries to protect his holiday season. Set your family schedule and make sure you have the priorities in order. As your children get older and married, you have to plan and be flexible to be able to share your children with their extended family.
Don’t worry about things you can’t control. So all you control freaks out there, stay with me. Together with you, I totally understand the raised blood pressure. As much as you, I struggle with control and some days I don’t have it conquered as well as I thought. Don’t let people, family events, or lack of family events worry you to the point that it ruins your Holiday season. Enjoy what you can and when someone changes the plans at the last minute, choose to either change with them or celebrate with who is there with you and don’t worry about the ones that are not.
What is important?
I loved hearing the hearts of the people that left comments. They genuinely have the heart and desire to focus on the real reason for the season which is Jesus. Real quick, here are some ideas that they shared.
- Volunteer at a shelter.
- Forgo gifts and use the money to purchase gifts or food for people in need.
- Be thankful for God’s blessings and pray.
- Watch Christmas movies with the family
- Do a special Christmas devotional during the holiday season.
- Share the meal with family. Everyone brings a dish to share.
Therefore, keeping your sanity during the holiday’s is a choice. It usually is self-inflicted. I pray these ideas & tips help you and your family have the most joyful time this holiday season.