Making Christmas Stress Free And Joyful

As the crisp autumn days start to become colder and shorter so begins my favourite time of the year.  It’s time to turn on the fireplaces, pull out the cozy blankets, cuddle up and start planning for the holiday season.  

My love affair with the holiday season goes far back to my childhood, when I first landed in Canada on December 28 (back in 1973).  The beautiful, glistening snow covering the majestic mountains, decorating the evergreen trees and providing a vast white blanket on the ground left me in awe.  The cozy houses decked in colourful lights; beautifully decorated Christmas trees; crackling of the wood burning fireplaces and the warmth of good food, family and friends touched my soul.    I thought I was in a dream.  

That dream comes alive every year for me (except Vancouver seldom has snow, so I choose to enjoy the raindrops falling ever so gracefully).   Although we don’t celebrate Christmas from a religious perspective (and to all my friends out there who do, I wish you a very Merry Christmas), we love all that it stands for. 

The spirit of giving, the decorating, the cooking, family and friend time and of course all the little traditions fill my heart and home with joy and happiness.   For this reason it is really important to me that there is no stress or pressure related to this time of the year.  I just want happy campers and beautiful memories. 

Over the years,  I have learnt to set some strict guidelines and make my own rules to ensure my family has a great time.  These are the rules we follow strictly. 

• The biggest expectation is to relax, spend time together and enjoy.
• Prioritize and do more of what brings joy.  So if you love baking do more of that, if you hate baking go to your favourite store and buy some yummy goodies.  Nobody cares if you are perfect (actually, secretly they will hate you for it) but everyone loves it when you are joyful. 
• Make a list (write it down) of everything that needs to be done.  (All the shopping, baking, decorating, and any commitments).  I used to do this on paper but now notes feature on the Iphone is so convenient. I have a list for everything, including menu, grocery shopping, gifts drinks, decorating items and outfits. As I think of things to do I add them to my list and as completed I delete them. 
• Plan to spend this time with those who uplift you, not judge you. It’s okay to say no.  It’s your time, you spend it how, where and with whom you please. 
• Start early.  Spending a couple of  hours every few days on things you need to do is a lot more enjoyable than trying to do it all together. 
• Enjoy the process.  Sometimes we place so much expectation on the particular occasion.  Instead we need to enjoy the planning, and the preparation just as much.  Indulge and enjoy the little chores, take a loved one or a friend along. Doing preparation works with those we love makes it so much more fun.
• Divide the responsibilities – it’s not a one person job.  Besides, everyone feels valued when they get to contribute in some way.  Respect that. 
• A Christmas present is a lovely gesture of giving.  Give and receive with love and gratitude. 
• Teach value of giving not greed. 
• Traditions bring joy but don’t be afraid to create and recreate them to suit your style.

Here are some things that really bring joy to our Christmas Season. 

Oh, how I love decorating those Christmas trees.  When we moved into our new house, a couple of years back, our tree was too short for our family room with high ceilings.  To my delight we just had to get a taller one for this area.  The older, traditional one was moved into the basement. It works well with the dark wood there anyways.  This new one is ice blue, cream, metallic to go with the family room colours. (That ribbon on the top, as a tree topper, that was created by our Christmas fairy – our younger daughter.)

As our tradition has it, we all have to be together to decorate the traditional tree.  With Christmas music playing, the kids pull out all their childhood ornaments.  Years back, we started to buy a Christmas tree ornament from each of our family vacations.  Sometimes we have to be creative as we can’t always find Christmas ornaments out of season or not every country has them. Hanging these ornaments brings a flood of beautiful memories.  

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The spirit of giving is my favourite thing about Christmas.  When we first got married we bought gifts for every member of the immediate family.  But as our own family grew bigger, we decided to change this tradition and  only buy for the kids including our nieces and nephews.  This kept things simple and provided us the joy of watching the kids open presents on Christmas morning.  (They are the most fun to watch anyways.)

Now that our kids are all adults, this tradition has changed again.  We do Secret Santa among our immediate family,  except for the Grands.  They give kids money and we all jointly buy each of them a nice present.  This way everyone has something to open on Christmas morning without  unnecessary clutter of presents .  We find it saves a lot of stress, time and unnecessary expenditure.   This is likely to change, once again, when we have grandkids. 

With fewer gifts to shop for and wrap it leaves a lot of room for fun and creativity.  Each year we love figuring out what our colour scheme will be for the wrapping.  Again, our Christmas fairy does an amazing job of wrapping them.  Beautifully wrapped presents make a great decor as well. 

Since last year we have also added another new tradition.  Through The Saheli Foundation, our family adopts a child in needs and makes a Christmas hamper for them with everything on their wish list.  The happiness this shopping, wrapping and giving provides us is beyond measure. This tradition, I hope will stay in our family for years to come. 

This year I have another bright idea for making a new tradition.   I find there are so many good books to read but not enough time.   Secondly, we often read a great book and wish we could share it with our loved ones (I often wish I could put all the information into a pill and give it to my little, well not so little, darlings). 

So along with Secret Santa gift we will also give a book.  This present we will give on December 21 when everyone comes homes.  This way we all have a new book to read over the holidays (with busy careers everyone just wants to relax and what better way to do this than cuddle up with a good book.)  On New Year’s Day we will all discuss our books.  Brilliant, right?  I thought so. 

When it comes to decorating I have to watch myself.  It’s so easy to splurge on so many items.  So when we go shopping I make sure there is a fine balance between splurging and being thrifty. I love decorating the family room and downstairs recreation room as this is where we all spend most of the times.  Other than that I love to add a few touches here and there.  Adding a Christmas touch to existing decor is always nice.  

Another tradition we all have so much fun with is our Christmas pajamas. Our darling daughters take charge of finding these every year.  We are always excited to see what they come up with.  We give these to everyone on Christmas Eve to wear for the Christmas morning and rest of the holidays. 

This year when we were at The Harry Potter World in London, and the girls were so inspired by the Weasley Sweaters.  My mom loves to knit and crochet and I knew she would be thrilled to knit them.  She has five sweaters done and one more to go.  Next weekend we all make it a project to cut out and stitch our initials on these sweaters.  Can’t wait to see them on the kids.  

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For outdoors, I prefer not to have my boys pull out ladders to reach high peaks.  Instead we decided to decorate this beautiful row of cherry trees.  Easy reach and absolutely beautiful. 

Since there are no little kids in the family for now, our favourite activity is beer pong (or I prefer wine pong or maybe even soda pong) and board games.  My best memory from last year is when my 83 year old dad started the dance party.   

When it comes to food I really want to keep it simple.  I love cooking for my family but I love being a part of everything fun at Christmas, just a little more.  Making majority of the items ahead of time and getting everyone to pitch in ensures I have lots of fun times with the people I love the most.  

After all the real essence of the holidays is to have an amazing time and make memories to last a lifetime.  It’s your Christmas and holiday season.  You are in control.  Choose to make it relaxing, peaceful and joyful!  Sending you all my best wishes for the seasons. 

With Love,

Devinder 💖