6 Essential tips for the perfect easy Christmas
1. Avoid any shopping centres after the 1st December. Shopping centres can be a huge drain on your energy levels. Go local and discover the delights of small bespoke shops. Ideal little stocking fillers can be found at farmers markets, or if you have a keen eye, delights can be had at charity shops. Local shopping reinforces the feel good factor. Place attention to detail – a beautifully wrapped present looks expensive, unique and carefully thought about.
2. If you are overwhelmed bring things back in control. If you have run out of time to send Christmas cards, prioritise, to those essential aunts and uncles etc. I ring up old friends periodically and catch up rather than just sending yet another card of promises to meet up. Emails are okay, however they do not stand out as anything special. It’s a time of good will, people like to feel loved, liked, and cherished.
3. Keep it simple… People remember the emotion, the feeling, the experience years afterwards, rather than how many courses or the quality of the presents. The best events are when the hosts are relaxed and up for fun. I used to get really hung up on cleaning the entire house from top to bottom. I am much more casual these days and really focus on only the rooms that people see. We all like to play sardines, by the end of the evening everyone is covered in dust where they have been hiding under the bed! No one notices because it’s dark! I am beyond caring because the fun and good cheer is far more important.
4. Keep a sense of perspective. Reframe how you feel about your nearest and dearest…we can’t choose our family. Forgive and move on from past hurts. Write yourself juicy powerful statements reinforcing that your mother in law or whoever, (who generally is a guaranteed wind up) no longer has any effect on you. Write in the positive and present tense. What we ask for is what we get.
5. If you feel yourself winding up like a tight spring, or feeling you can’t breathe – take 15 minutes out. Lie down in a quiet place and focus on your breathing, lovely deep relaxing breaths, breathing into your stomach and deflating on the out breath. In your mind take yourself to a lovely garden or a golden beach and whisper to yourself relax, relax, relax. Works like magic.
6. In the kitchen or while cleaning play soothing, inspirational music, or crank up the volume and start the party early to the Rolling Stones!
Whatever your religious beliefs about Christmas it is a celebration, a time for cosying up and celebrating. Whether it’s the birth of Jesus or the winter solstice…after the 22ndof December we pass the shortest day and from there on the days are getting longer. I view it as a time to sit around the table and play silly games with my nearest and dearest and come from a place of love.
