Holidays — Simplifying As We Celebrate
10 Ways to Connect to Tradition, Meaning, and Each Other
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Why Simplify the Holidays?
Holidays are often a combination of festivity, contemplation, relaxation, travel, and multi-generational family time. Holidays offer the opportunity to gather with loved ones, to appreciate life’s moments big and small, to pause, rest, and reset. Holiday time can also be marked by stress, overwhelm, expense, and loneliness. Holidays are culturally-significant and/or spiritually-significant periods to reconnect with priorities and each other. Time away from work and routine offer a perfect time to simplify — a perfect time to approach family gatherings, gift-giving, expense, plans, and expectations with intention.
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There are numerous ways to replace holiday chaos with meaning and ease. Below are ten effective strategies that can help us enjoy traditions, food, fun, family and friends by simplifying at holiday time:
Say No to Hustle & Bustle: Holidays are not all about going and doing. Holidays are also about rest and recreation. Don’t allow clever marketing or the remarks or expectations of others transform the holidays into weighty obligations.
Prioritize your Priorities. Be deliberate in keeping your health, peace, and priorities in place as you plan where you’ll go, what you’ll do, and who you’ll see.
Clarify Which Traditions are most meaningful to you and to others. If you no longer care to cook all day, work together on a simpler, more-streamlined meal. Be open and flexible, while making mental and physical space for what works for you.
Focus on Ease & Fun. Friends and family will appreciate and remember low-hassle time talking, laughing, playing board games, and exchanging stories most of all. Light, easy time together, if it can be had, is among the best of holiday traditions.
Practice Gratitude & Spaciousness. What do you admire or appreciate about each of your closest family members and friends? Be specific — what do you love about them? Be curious about the people you love, and about something that’s special to them, that’s close to their heart. Be present. Watch and listen. Ask questions. Keep your eyes, ears, heart, and arms open.
Maintain Boundaries as Needed. Be present and participatory, while continuing to care for yourself. Rest when you need rest, excuse yourself if and when it’s time, and keep your morning jog in place. Stand tall, and limit time with individuals if and when needed.
Simplify Traditions. Sit with your loved ones and say out loud which holiday traditions you love. Make time for favorite traditions, and be open to evolution. Would moving Thanksgiving by a day make the holiday better in big ways?
Simplify Gift-Giving. There are many ways to reduce expense, clutter, and the need or perceived-obligation to get unwanted trinkets back to the other side of the country. People often regret impulse-buys, overspending, giving too much, and receiving too much at the holidays. One popular approach involves experiences and small, very personal items and gestures. A true gift to someone could be as simple as a call to a friend of colleague that you know is alone at holiday time, or a cup of tea with an elderly neighbor.
Be measured about Invitations & Commitments: It’s wonderful to gather with friends and family. At the same time, it’s important to politely decline an invite when fatigue, interest, or the busyness of the day warrants that you should.
Cultivate a Penchant for What is Spare, Elegant, and Easy: Many people bemoan the fact that they have too much. Simplicity is about systems, elegance, and ease. On the matter of simplicity in our lives, author James Altucher writes “The learned man aims for more. But the wise man decreases. And then decreases again.” Less is more, in that less is often preferable, easy, and elegant.
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Holidays offer a festive, hopefully happy, special time to pause and be with ourselves and others. Holidays can be a gift in themselves — a chance to remember, recharge, and to connect to our family, community, history, and culture. Holidays are also the perfect time to approach family gatherings, gift-giving, expense, plans, and expectations with intention. This year we can say no to overwhelm and chaos. At the same time, we can say renew focus on meaning, our priorities, and our most cherished traditions by simplifying as we celebrate.