5 Tips for a Stress-Free Run-Up to Christmas

During the eleven years that we lived in Russia we had to work hard to make Christmas special, since the 25^th December was an ordinary working day. Yet in many ways it was very freeing to avoid all the materialistic hype and to be able to focus instead on developing our own meaningful, family traditions. Our first Christmas back in this country was a bit of a shock and ended up being rather stressful! Since then, we’ve been more intentional about what we say yes to, and how we celebrate as a family. Here are some things we’ve learnt:

1)      Set your priorities

Take some time to think what is most important to you at Christmas time. Is it being with wider family? Giving gifts to people in need? Serving your church or community? Offering hospitality? Choose one or two things. 

2)      Don’t be afraid to cut back

With your priorities in mind, think where you can cut back on extra, unnecessary tasks or obligations that just end up causing stress. Do you need to send out all those Christmas cards? Do you need to host that drinks party? Could you agree with your family to send fewer presents this year or do a ‘secret Santa’ instead?

3)      Plan ahead

Start making a plan now: when you need to start writing cards, who you’re buying presents for, when you’re going to fill your shoebox for Samaritan’s Purse, when you’re going to put up your decorations, what your menu plan is for Christmas Day itself…. If you get this all down in writing in good time then it’s much less likely to sneak up on you and cause you stress at the last minute. You can also see at a glance if you’ve just got too much going on and you need to say no to something.

4)      Focus on Jesus

Now that you’ve taken care of the usual Christmas obligations, take time to think about how you can focus on the real meaning of Christmas this year. Can you make the nativity scene the central Christmas decoration in your living room instead of the tree? Do you have an advent wreath and advent candles? Is there a special devotional you can follow throughout advent? Are there special crafts you can do with your kids* or books you can read?

5)      Enjoy

It’s such a shame that Jesus’s birthday celebrations end up causing us so much stress! Think how you can enjoy the season instead, for example by playing special Christmas music, lighting candles, using advent calendars to increase the anticipation, attending carol services. What is it about the Christmas season that you particularly love?

Wishing you all a peaceful, joyful, stress-free run up to Christmas!

*Recommended resource for families: truthinthetinsel.com

Learning to Say No to Myself

There are only ten days left until Christmas! The tree is up and decorated, we made our first batch of mince pies this afternoon, and Nathaniel has already eaten all of the chocolates in his advent calendar.

Flashback to last year. We had just moved....again!.....temporarily....and were simultaneously enjoying our friend's wood burner stove and anxiously making sure that the kids didn't fall into it in their excitement as they performed somersaults on the unusually large leather sofas.

That Christmas, our first back in the UK for 10 years, proved to be rather stressful, for various reasons, and Hubbie and I were determined to make some changes for 2014.

I wonder if anyone's like me. We hear talks or podcasts about 'Learning to Say No', and we nod along, agreeing with the sentiment that already-overstretched-mothers like ourselves need to be firm in not consenting to take on the role of PTA treasurer, or agreeing to host the next bake sale, or whatever it might be that others ask us to do that, to be honest, we know will turn us into 'angry-stressed-mummy' for the days leading up to the event, to the detriment of our quivering, 'quick-get-out-of-her-way' families. But then this year, since no one is really asking me to do anything extra, I feel I can tick this 'Learning to say no' business off my list. Check!

So then, why was I so stressed come the end of November? After a chat with my husband I realised it was because  

It wasn't just about saying no to other people, I had to say no to myself too!

You see, I'd placed all these unrealistic burdens on myself, thinking that they were essential to my Christmas to-do list, when really they weren't. I had already posted off three parcels to missionary friends overseas and filled two shoeboxes for Operation Christmas Child with my children (which stupidly involved turning up at the supermarket with all four children in tow on Black Friday morning, blissfully unaware that that particular phenomenon had hit the UK - I mean, why??? We don't even celebrate Thanksgiving!) and I was already burnt out. 

Yes, these are all lovely, thoughtful things to do at Christmas, but I had never really examined them to see if I needed to say 'no' to any of them. 

The next thing on my to-do list? Christmas cards. With a new-found sense of freedom in my heart, I cut down my list to an absolute bare minimum. People would understand why they didn't get a Christmas card from us this year, it would be OK. Next year, hopefully, I could add them all back onto the list, but for now, for the sake of my sanity and my family's well-being I needed to say no....

...to myself...

....to my perfectionistic self which says that I need to send all these Christmas cards out every single year or people will be offended...

....to my perfectionistic self which says that I need to complete this particular Christmas craft activity series with my kids otherwise their Christmas won't be complete and meaningful...

....to my perfectionistic self which says that I need to rush out and buy more Christmas decorations for our new house, instead of making do with just the basics this year.

So here's to a stress-free Christmas season! Merry Christmas!

Oh, and if you were on my Christmas card list....um....er.....sorry about that. I think the postman's dog ate your card....ahem.

Abide in Him!


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Blog Carnival Giveaway

Amy over at Fisher Academy International is hosting the last of this year's Charlotte Mason Blog Carnivals on December 11th, and the theme is .......of course the Christmas Holiday Season!

She'll be giving away this 2013 Art Calendar to some lucky reader.

So head over there and either enjoy reading the various blog posts that are submitted and leave some comments, or submit your own holiday related blog post in order to enter the draw to win.

Abide in Him!

Making the Most of the Holiday Season

It happened a few days ago. It was a strange feeling, a little unexpected but not unwelcome. My husband doesn't feel the same way, and thinks it's too early, but the kids have been feeling this for some time now. What happened? I started getting excited about Christmas!

Back in October I was following Cheri Gregory's 'A Holiday-Ready Heart'. I love her witty but poignant way of writing, and would recommend you have a look at her posts for the 31-day challenge over at The PURSEonality Challenge Blog. However, because we don't celebrate Thanksgiving (being British) the holidays seemed like a long way away back then.

Then came an invitation to celebrate Thanksgiving with some American friends, and I started thinking about what we could do to embrace the meaning of this celebration with our own children. I settled on Ann Voskamp's Thanksgiving Tree idea (you'll have to skim down to her entry for Nov 7th). Our leaves are all cut out and ready for writing on tomorrow!

And I guess once I'd decided to do that, I started remembering all the fun crafts we would be doing in December to prepare for Christmas, and that was it. I'm now thinking about where to put all the decorations this year whilst unconsciously humming 'Hark the Herald Angels' to myself.

If any of you are like us and live overseas then you've probably had to send out your 'Christmas present request list' to your families back home already. And if you're anything like us then you're resigned to the fact that most of these precious parcels will arrive in January or February anyway! Once a Christmas parcel arrived in sweltering hot June, containing a hand-knitted woolly sweater from Grandma. I put it on the baby, took a quick photo, and promptly took it off again!

So as we start getting excited about Christmas with our families, here are some things that I'm finding helpful and inspiring:

• A good place to start, if you're a perfectionist like me, is with a Christmas planner. There are some good ideas over at 'Christmas Your Way'.
• I'm really looking forward to doing Truth in the Tinsel again! It's a fun way to talk with your children about the meaning of Christmas whilst doing some simple crafts. I highly recommend buying the ebook if you haven't got it already. I've found it a good alternative to the more widely known 'Jesse Tree' idea, which just seemed a bit too much for my preschoolers.
• We're also looking forward to making our advent wreath again and lighting a candle every Sunday whilst reading some Scripture as a family together. There are different ways of doing this, but here's one link that explains what the wreath is. The first Sunday of Advent is the 2nd of December, so we need to have our wreath ready by then.
• Christmas music of course is a must! We have a CD of children's Christmas songs, and a more classical 'Carols from King's College, Cambridge' which we love. This year I'm looking forward to buying Kari Jobe's Bethlehem album.  I bought her two other albums while we were in England earlier this year, and I just love her voice, her lyrics and her music!
• Finally, I'm looking forward to joining in with the Christmas Bible study over at Good Morning Girls to prepare my own heart for the Christmas season. It starts on 26th November, so go and get subcribed if you haven't already!

Qu: What special things are you planning to do with your family this Christmas?

Qu: What special family traditions do you have around this upcoming holiday season?

Qu: How do you manage to keep Christmas meaningful amidst all the stress and commercialism?

I'd love to hear what helps and inspires you!

Abide in Him!

Linking up here:



Photo Credit:
small candle - freedigitalphotos.net/ graur razuan ionut
star ornament - freedigitalphotos.net/ suat eman

Finding Balance in the Christmas Season

The Christmas season is upon us! It took me a bit by surprise, with the first Sunday of Advent starting in November, but tonight I sat down and did some planning and am hoping that it'll be a fun and meaningful time for all of us.

Lots of the blogs I follow have already written about resources and tips for the festive season. Sometimes when I read them I do get a bit discouraged by how much time, energy and creativity everyone else must have apart from me. Then I remembered a verse from my Abiding Fruit Bible study that I'm doing this week with the Maximise Your Mornings challenge:

" Each of you should test your own actions. Then you can take pride in yourself, without comparing yourself to somebody else, for each of you should carry your own load." Galatians 6 v 4,5

It's hard not to compare yourselves with others, but everyone's situation is different, and everyone's stress tolerance levels are different. Here are some things to think about:

Stage of life: Perhaps some of us have very small children still, and a lot of energy is sapped in changing nappies or potty training or feeding or just mopping up messes and soothing grazed knees.
Situation: If you're like me, then you live in a foreign country far away from family. Often that means that just living daily life is more challenging and time consuming. Meals have to be made from scratch, craft materials are hard to come by, Grandma is not around the corner to help with the kids while you go shopping.
Character: Some of us are more energetic and social than others. I know for myself that, although I'd love to entertain more regularly, having guests round more than once every two weeks makes me exhausted and throws me off my schedule.
Health: Perhaps some of us have some health issues that drain our energy and make us want to retreat and sleep more.

The verses from Galatians encouraged me to stop looking at (and envying) other homeschooling mothers and just work out a happy balance in my own life that I can cope with. When the children are older hopefully we can do more things, but right now I'm in a season of life where I have to protect my energy levels.

So what are we doing for the advent season this year?
1) Advent calendars - we can't buy these here, but some friends in Germany sent us one each for the children. They love opening the doors and counting down the days.

Candle Ornaments from Truth in the Tinsel

2) Christmas crafts - I bought the amazing ebook Truth in the Tinsel, and am hoping to work my way through most of these daily projects with the children. Here's our first one from today:
3) Advent candles - we have an advent wreath, and each Sunday we light the next candle and Dh reads a relevant passage from the Bible and we talk about some aspect of Christmas.
4) Carols and mulled wine - I'm sad that we can't buy mince pies or mincemeat here, but I did bring some mulled wine sachets back from England for our now annual Carols and mulled wine evening. Some time this month we'll invite several expat families round and enjoy fellowship together whilst singing Christmas carols at the piano and taking turns to read Christmas-related Bible passages.
5) Festive spirit - the children are looking forward to helping me decorate the house this weekend, and yesterday I put on a CD of Christmas children's music and we all danced around the room.

I hope you all have a fun and meaningful advent season in your homes this year :-)