Holidays Archives - The Motherly Heap

Simplify To Ditch Holiday Stress

Jordan N. — Tue, 20 Dec 2022 23:31:57 +0000

Holidays can be stressful for some people. Who can resist the hustle and bustles of the December festivities? But what if you can do something to lessen the stress of this beautiful season? Would you leap to simplify and ditch holiday stress? With over-the-top gift-giving expectations, endless shopping errands, and chaotic family gatherings–holiday stress can accumulate quickly. This season, simplify your holiday prep and permit yourself to let go of unnecessary stress by trying viable strategies that will save you time and energy. Impact of Simplifying During the Holiday This post is primarily written for moms who want to minimize stress during this time of the year. You may think I’d instead do more than be bland, and it’s not about that. When you simplify things, you already know and feel a breath of relief thinking of a holiday to-do list cut down to a minimum. You regain control of the household or free up calendar days to relax. You may find more time for a couple of nights in because you don’t have to go anywhere. The core of reconnecting with the people most important to us becomes the center point of celebrating the holidays. Come Back to Enjoying The Holiday Thinking about the holidays, moms tend to cringe over the preparations. Let’s turn it around, shall we? Let’s get in the holiday spirit without breaking our backs and dragging our heels around town. Getting stressed over this time is expected. No one says you can’t be stressed or feel it down to your bones. But let’s focus on how to enjoy the holiday without adding to our already stressed-out mom life. Beautiful moments are out there for grabs without overcomplicating things. Ten Ways to Simplify The Holiday and Ditch the Stress Stop overbooking yourself. Prioritize. Ask yourself if this is worth your energy and time. Skip a Christmas event? Do you get joy in doing more and more activities for the sake of holidays? Pick the top activities you want to partake in with your family and stick to them. When overbooking the December calendar, the power to intentionally reconnect might not happen. Instead, you or your family end up drained and stressed out for being everywhere instead of lavishing these times on three or four great holiday activities. Order what you need 1-2 months prior. If you think your menu will be the same for the Holidays, you already know what to get. But on perishables, this isn’t the number to read. I’m talking about food ingredients that you can store. So you don’t go out last-minute shopping when holidays can extend check-out lines. Also, what about presents? Now we’re digging deeper into getting ready for what to buy for kids if you plan on multiple presents under the tree. Order the gifts ahead of time; most likely, your kids had been hounding you about it five months ago. Waiting until the last minute might cost you more, such as hiked-up prices and shipping costs; worse, the item might be available later. Nothing like a good sale on an item when you can get them in the summertime for December presents if that’s you go for it. Plan accordingly and get ahead of the game. Say no to frazzled gift shopping. Use ready to put together meals. If you don’t have time to make food from scratch, by all means, don’t. However, don’t open that can if it makes your stress level skyrocket. You can buy already pre-planned, pre-packed ready-to-cook items for holiday dinner. You can even order your food from your local stores or even the neighbor down the street whose food advertising her service. Christmas cookies? Making them down to the last details from scratch is fun with the kids. However, it’s still fun to get them ready to bake cookie dough and go all out on decorating those cookies with them. Instead of making five different Christmas cookies, ditch the stress, and you may have to cut down on one or two to simplify the holiday baking. Stay focused on what you can accomplish and enjoy holiday cooking/baking time. Say no to clutter. Cut down on Decor. Is it time to clean and declutter again? Maybe or not. Once you decide on your theme for the Christmas Decor, you may purge out your Christmas boxes full of decorations from the past holidays. I’m all for saving decorations if I know I’ll use them yearly. We’ve only got three themes going for the last 13 years since our son was born. A traditional red/green/gold theme, pink/blue, and silver theme for when our children were born that year. The tabletop decorations, the wreath, and the Christmas ornaments stayed about the same in circulation. And guess what? You can have the same tree year after year – if you don’t use real Christmas trees. Talk about saving. Unless you plan on spending more and gathering more decorations, you don’t need to buy a whole Christmas theme every year. Instead, you may change the ribbons or some look. Less clutter, less stressful. Fewer decorations to store, less stress. Reset the Gift Giving. The joy of giving comes from the giver. The person who gives feels the pleasure of sharing. If you feel that this year may be a bit tight on finances, there isn’t a significant rule that you give to everyone in the family, relatives, friends, and more. When money is an issue in a household, you may feel guilty about not giving to everyone. But, at the same time, you don’t want to incur debts to provide a gift. When you are stressed about what to buy, who to buy for, and where the money will come from. Stop. Get some fresh air. Even if you don’t buy everything for everyone, you still honor them for not getting worked up and stressed about all of these. Secret Santa can be a great one to do. Pick one name in the group and place the unnamed gift together with everyone’s gifts. Check out the rules of Secret Santa. So, if the gathering group is 20-plus people, it may be hard to dive in and buy 20 gifts for everyone on a tight budget. You decide how you’re going to do the gifting. Be practical and take control of the stress of giving. If you are still in the spirit of giving, you may have to plan to save for it. For example, you are cutting costs on extra things and saving that money to buy for someone. Related Posts: Holiday Gift Guide for Learning Toys December Family Bucket List Be present. It’s natural for everyone to get all festive and spread cheers everywhere. If you want to do that, be present. Not just for the sake of holidays, as I’ve said, but for the connections, you are trying to make. It’s for the moment to treasure and not for picture-perfect holiday photos only. Kids will ask you to do more for them, especially during these holiday breaks. You may feel touched out after all the holiday preparations and invites. Please take a moment and rethink what my kids remember about the holidays when they’re grown. The mom is running around tirelessly doing everything, or the mom who sat and engaged with them in a burst of time or moment. Meet their need for reconnections, and the tantrums may send that signal – it may be time to slow down and be present. Quality time over things and extra stuff – wins all the time. Return to Traditions you love. Having newer ideas to do during the Holidays can make you feel like you’re really into it. Being merry and bright. However, doing the family traditions, your family loves to do every year can be as magical as a new one. This year, your kids are one year older. So they can participate in the traditions you’ve shared from past generations. Older traditions may need to be readjusted or skipped if they don’t apply to your family anymore (after consideration). Your family traditions are yours. If you opt to include some of your childhood traditions, let it continue if it’s not adding more work for you. Find newer ones that simplify and represent your family – the traditions that value your family celebrations. It’s about bringing the family together to celebrate and memory stamping to enjoy. Remember What Matters. Family matters. You. Your Spouse. Your kids. Each member of the family matters. It may also extend to relatives and friends. Getting together for a simple celebration is what family connections stem from. It doesn’t have to be extravagant for it to happen. Sharing a meal with the people you love is what matters. The joy of the holidays can be overshadowed by the weight of the stress hanging over your shoulder. Simply, remember what matters. Check on your Stress Gauge. As for moms, it’s always good to check your stress level. You can tell when something is getting out of hand or too much to handle. Step back and reassess your priorities. Get some suggestions and accept help when needed. You may have to decline some holiday invites or may do a virtual one for relatives who are far and not travel this year. Do what brings you joy this holiday season. Say yes to the priorities you’ve set on Operation Holiday. Say no to the ones that may add up to the stress gauge and bust it all up. Your emotions are also an excellent giveaway to your current stress level. Stop unrealistic Holiday Expectations. Simply lower the expectations around this time of year. There’s too much to do if you love the holidays, and nothing is wrong with that. Yet most times, you don’t want to get tangled with all the chaos that comes with it. It’s time to reflect on what makes your life simpler. You don’t have to hop on a comparison train. It’ll suck the joy out of you for not meeting those expectations. Do what your family loves, what you can do, and nothing more. Enjoy the cheers and happy feelings around the home. Breathe, ditch the holiday stress! There isn’t one way to fix all holiday stress. Yet, you can minimize the impact of getting riled up during this festive season. Adjustments on your holiday calendar can make a difference once you’ve freed up some space to be present. You can swap some holiday activities to do a much simpler one and still be able to engage with the whole family. It will be to enjoy a lot more during the season and lower the stress around you. You don’t have to put much pressure on yourself to meet expectations around the holidays. You can simply be – do what makes you happy, less stressed, and everyone enjoys. What are your strategies to keep holiday chaos at bay? Share in the comments.

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December Family Bucket List

Jordan N. — Thu, 16 Dec 2021 23:44:12 +0000

Week two of December 2021 is done! Got two more weeks to spend some family time with this December Bucket List! How’s the holiday spirit? Is your Christmas tree up? Since when? Or are you gathering your Christmas decorations to put up this weekend? Either way, ready or not – Christmas is coming. When it comes to holiday celebrations, each family has its traditions and celebrates this beautiful festive season of the year. Does your tradition involve making cookies, attending a Christmas party, driving around town to see the lights, or lining up children’s Christmas arts to do? If you want to add some new family tradition ideas this year, you can check out this December family bucket list! This post contains affiliate links to products. I may earn a small commission if you choose to purchase from the product links at no cost to you. Please read the full disclosure here. Let’s get on with Our December Bucket List for the Whole Family. 1. Check out Christmas Tree Lights. You can grab your jackets, and winter hats and get ready to check out Christmas lights around the neighborhood. You may get lucky to see a decorated house with a lights display and enjoy the show with the rest of the other people around. By this time, the city’s Christmas tree had already been lit a week ago; this is an excellent opportunity to visit the area with the whole family and take a photo. 2. Go Ice Skate with the whole family. With young kids up to teens ice skating activity, you can’t go wrong. There’s a magical aura in dancing on ice or even just gliding and listening to holiday music. You can let the children do the ice skating, and you and your spouse can sit back on the sidelines while sipping on your warm chai latte. The cool part is you can do this outdoors or indoors. 3. Make a gingerbread house. Grab your family’s gingerbread house store-bought and get the kids around the kitchen table. If you prefer to make your own gingerbread house, you can use your own family’s recipe or check this gingerbread house recipe by Sugar Geek Show. You let the children assemble the gingerbread house with some assistance from you. Take photos of the children building their gingerbread houses also when they’re done. To make this a yearly tradition, you can create a gingerbread house scrapbook of the kids. Their gingerbread photos will be dated, and as the year continues, you can add new pictures of them with their gingerbread house. 4. Donate New Toys to Shelters. With the holiday season and a lesson of kindness at home, you can extend this valuable opportunity to give. Take some time to talk about sharing what you have and making someone else happy. If you have unopened, unused toys at home, you can wrap them up with Christmas bows and bring them to shelters. You can also buy new toys to donate to shelters or orphanages for the kids. Let your children help wrap up the new toys and write a Christmas card for each toy. 5. Decorate Homemade Donuts Baking time for everyone! Either you can make the donuts or have your children help you make the donuts – the decorating becomes the fun part for kids. Create some simple homemade buttercream frosting and use Christmas colors on the frosting. You all can be creative in decorating these homemade donuts at home. If you need inspiration on what to decorate it with, you can check out this fun Christmas wreath donut decorating idea by Savvy Saving Couple. Also, here’s a quick and straightforward baked donut recipe by As Easy As Apple Pie. 6. Christmas Movie Marathon Who doesn’t love a Christmas movie marathon countdown to Christmas? Here’s how it goes: 7. December Hike or Bike If you’re in a state with stable weather around 50 to 60 degrees, this family activity can be a great one to do in December. Whether you choose to hike or bike with a family, it’s going to be a fun outdoor activity for everyone. 8. Bake Christmas Cookies/Sweets Our family loves cookies and sweet treats – we call them Yummies! How about giving this family bucket idea a chance to get on your December Traditions? My family bakes cookies every December 23rd – the kids help with gathering the ingredients, prep, and baking. Then we get to have fun decorating them while sipping our hot cocoa. These cookies are prep and ready for Santa’s visit. Of course, there may be some licking the royal icing frosting too. Just have fun! Here’s a quick recipe for a sugar cookie to follow from the Preppy Kitchen. Simple to make and fun to decorate with kids! Have a go! 9. Paint your Christmas Tree Your toddler can quickly do this December kid’s craft. Get them the art supplies and let them paint their own Christmas Tree. Their Christmas tree can be embellished with glitter, sequins, buttons, or pom-poms after painting, or leave them as-is. 10. Build a Snowman You can’t skip building a snowman if you are somewhere based on a snowy winter place. Snow is a kid magnet to play with. Start a snowball fight with the entire family! You can also invite the cousins and make it a massive – snowball war if you’re into it! Here in South Texas, we rarely get to experience snow. While last February this year, the kids had another opportunity to play with snow and build a snowman. Even though the snow brought on no power – it was one to remember. 11. Christmas Pajamas Family Photo Coordinating a family photo wearing Christmas Pajamas may require you to buy a family set. However, if you sew and have time, make the entire pajamas for the family. Whichever you decide, the exciting part is to document a family photo this year around your Christmas Tree. Suppose you can also be casual on a sofa or bed. Have fun, and the pictures will be a great memory keepsake. 12. Decorate the Christmas Tree When does your family start decorating the Christmas tree? Is it before Thanksgiving or around December? The fun part of decorating the tree as a family is putting up the Christmas ornaments collected through the years. You can be reminiscing what year, why that particular ornament, or simply remembering. You may have had your ornaments from when you were a child from your parents. Also, you certainly can add more as the family grows—first Christmas for Baby, First house, any special event that happened that year. Parents and kids can equally have fun with this December bucket list idea. 13. Do It Yourself Natural Christmas Wreath If you don’t plan to buy a $60 and above ready-made wreath, you can make your own. These examples of natural Christmas wreaths are easy to do. Check out these two: 14. Make a personalized decorated ornament There are plenty of options when making your Christmas ornaments. You can purchase Christmas balls and write on them using paint pens for a design or name. You can also make homemade clay ornaments with your kids in Christmas shapes. Again, be creative and make it memorable. DIY clay ornaments recipe by Tips from a Typical Mom. 15. Create a Warm-Up Care Package and Give What is this? A warm-up package is a box filled with items to keep someone warm during winter. It can include a pair of gloves, a scarf, thick socks, a jacket, or a blanket. You can add winter hats and thermos as well. Assemble what you want to give and keep it in your car. Prepare two or three boxes. You can provide these as a whole Christmas donation for a church, or you can give these warm-up packages to someone you see on the streets. The point is to give the gift of warmth during these holidays. 16. Christmas Loveys for NICU Babies If you are a NICU parent, a handmade blanket is one of the things you may receive during your baby’s NICU stay. I certainly did receive one from a generous NICU parent who donated blankets in the NICU. I truly appreciate the beautiful gift for my premature baby. To think she still uses the blanket after many years. I felt supported when I received one, and I’m always grateful for that kindness toward my baby and our family. So for this Christmas, my daughter and I are sewing loveys for NICU Babies. 17. Write a Letter to Santa Kids are writing letters to Santa – one of the many Christmas traditions that families do. If you’re looking for a template for this Letter for Santa – here’s one I made you can download and print. Letter for Santa. 18. Offer a Mass for a Dearly Departed Holidays come with the sadness of missing a loved one who passed. Instead, families celebrate their lives by offering a mass of intention. Offering a mass doesn’t have to be on their death anniversary. You can also provide during this time of year. Make sure you check with your church for dates. 19. Hot Chocolate Afternoon Do you have a hot cocoa bar in your house? Pick a day for the family to enjoy hot chocolate one afternoon. Make your hot cocoa or use ready cocoa mix – let the kids choose their toppings. Use Christmas mugs or kids’ favorite mugs and enjoy the fabulous, warm hot chocolate. Christmas Mugs for everyone: Set of 6 Christmas Mugs 6 Ceramic Christmas Mugs Personalized Christmas Mugs 20. Christmas Game Nights Did you want a family fun night? Then game night may be the answer to boredom when indoor activities are on the table. Too cold to roam around with young toddlers? No problem, grab your favorite games and set up a fun-filled night for the family. You can check out some of your favorite family games to play. 21. Christmas by the Sea If you are in a warm climate during the holidays, you can do this bucket list idea for December. Grab your favorite drinks and a blanket or folding chairs. Go to a nearby beach and enjoy family time. 22. Advent Calendar for Kids Seeing the excitement as one opens each door leading to Christmas sounds fun. I opted for a chocolate Advent Calendar to do this year. It’s a hit with my kids. They get to open a door with different chocolates while counting down to Christmas. There are several kinds of Advent calendars you can choose from. You may see in the stores they have Advent Calendars with toys, crafts, chocolates, and even adults also do their advent calendars. Barbie Advent Calendar Slime Advent Calendar Harry Potter Advent Calendar Playfoam Pals Advent Calendar You can make one at home if you want 12 days before Christmas. Here’s an easy one to Do It Yourself advent calendar by Slick Slime Sam. 23. Read Christmas Stories Together Reading to your kids is a great way to boost their vocabulary and learning. So why not grab some Christmas-themed books and read together? You can also include these books for the kids’ Christmas Eve Boxes. Here are some Christmas Books to check out: Don’t Push The Button! Cami and Wyatt Share the Christmas Spirit How to Catch an Elf The Night Before Christmas A Christmas Tree for Jesus The Carpenter’s Gift 24. Book a Cabin for a Family Weekend Up for some adventure? You can spend family vacation time in a cabin for the Holidays or get away for a December weekend. It may require you to search and book this bucket list way ahead of time since availability may be slim this time around. This bucket list idea will be an opportunity to slow down, disconnect from the digital world, and indulge in some quality family time. You may start ten books before the Christmas tradition; you read one Christmas Book daily leading up to Christmas. 25. Lazy Day for All – Including...

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