Can Christmas Really Be Simple?

Last year I set out to make our Christmas celebration a bit simpler. I scaled down the buying considerably and I limited our activities. This year I’m going in the same direction but we’ve enjoyed more events than we did last year. It’s amazing how stress-free it can be if you do a little pre-planning and you’re willing to say “no” to some things. I have not really been frazzled at all. I’m smiling at all the cute little things my girls do, I’m humming while I shop, and I’m absorbing every moment!

 Here are a few things I’ve incorporated that have taken out some of the stress:


Do-It-Yourself Christmas Cards

This year I decided to take a picture of my girls myself for our Christmas cards and print the pictures on my new favorite toy, the Epson Picturemate Charm and then put them in little frame Christmas cards. I happened to have about 18 frame cards leftover from 3 years ago when I did my own cards so I was able to use those and that cut down the price. I bought the girls matching dresses 2 months ago. I dressed them in their matching dresses and set them in front of our Christmas tree and just started taking pictures. In about 10 minutes I had a couple of really cute pictures and they were both looking at the camera and smiling! It was a lot easier than getting them all dressed up, packing them up in the car, and then trying to keep them neat until it was our turn at the local photo studio. Also, I didn’t have the big pressure sell to buy a bunch of extra pictures that I did not need. Overall, a good option that worked out well!


Make a Party Out of Decorating the Tree


Now that I have one daughter who is able to help with the decorating, we decided to make a night of it. Pull out the ornaments and put on some Christmas music and start placing ornaments on the tree. With all of us working on it, we were done in a half hour. My daughter got such joy out of getting to pick where the ornaments went and we even got to share some stories about where we’d gotten each ornament. We ate a few cookies along the way and had some hot chocolate. Didn’t cost much at all and lots of memories and lots of fun!


Look Out for Lights


Make a game of trying to spot fun and different lights as you drive to shop or go to events. We like to find houses with the most lights, ones with the most colors, or unusual decorations. My older daughter enjoys yelling out from the back seat when she spots more lights.

The point is that you don’t have to spend a lot of money to make memories with your family. Your children will remember the fun times you spent with them or they will remember you running around frazzled and frustrated with everyone. Which memory do you want to leave with them?