Christmas is a wonderful time of year for many, and even those who do not celebrate that specific holiday will likely enjoy the festive decorative arrangements that many local towns and cities partake in, as well as corporations theming their products for the month. But what is Christmas for you? A time to get presents, and gift them? A time to eat plenty and not feel the slightest shred of guilt about it? Or simply a time to spend with family?
Of course, outside of rampant materialism, any way you wish to celebrate the Christmas cheer is likely wholesome and valid. However, Christmas cheer is just like laughter, and it’s infinitely better when shared. That means taking a few moments to consider how to perfectly spread that Christmas cheer can give you the joy you’re hoping for and expecting this year, potentially giving you the means to connect with your family, friends, and community that much more.
While not all the following advice is necessarily limited to the festive build-up, this time of year can have a magnifying effect from an emotional perspective, and so we hope it works just as intended:
Join The Community
Joining your local community can be a great idea, especially if you wish to feel connected with those around you at this time of year. Maybe a coffee morning is taking place at the local Church, and you wish to go and make your face known. Perhaps a small collective of litter pickers is hoping to move around the town center and remove some of the litter there, in order to make the local Christmas celebrations that much better. Perhaps there’s an event at your child’s school that has wholesome intentions at heart, and you wish to support it.
Joining the community is optional, of course, as you could choose none or all three of these suggestions. However, something as simple as helping to decorate your local post office or to paint a Christmas sign with your local community organizers can help you feel like you’ve contributed, and that can be an extraordinary feeling to keep at this time of year. Before you know it, you’ll be reveling and enjoying the beauty of Christmas well in advance.
Meet With Your Family
Of course, those without family can still have a fantastic Christmas, but Christmas is always best spent in the company of those you love, or those who are close to you. Meeting with your family can be an important thing to consider, especially if it’s been a while since you’ve seen them.
Perhaps a wonderful Christmas trip could be moving from one family member’s household to another, making your face known again, and taking them out for dinner. Perhaps you wish to invite some of your family members to your house for a meal before the Christmas celebrations begin, or maybe you’re happy to spend some time letting bygones be bygones and spending time with family you rarely speak to for a variety of reasons. A little Christmas cheer can always serve as the backbone for this kind of experience, and that in itself can be a powerful, lovely thing to consider.
Specialized Christmas Cards
Christmas cards can be refined or straightforward in their design, but for such a small thing, it’s amazing the emotional impact they can have. A Christmas card shows someone you are thinking of them, that you love them, and that you wish them a grand festive celebration. It may also be a great idea to take a group photograph of your family as the cover, to allow for your extended family to see what you look like now.
Specialized Christmas cards can also be a fun thing to design, and what should the festive period be if not a little fun? We’re not sure. Sure, you may not be with every member of your family at this time of year, but a card can help you be there in spirit.
Prepare A Wonderful Gift
A wonderful gift for someone in your family can be an excellent means of putting yourself out there and doing something special for someone. Note that a beautiful gift is not necessarily an expensive gift. It might simply be that you create a door wreath for one of your elderly neighbors who struggles to put up Christmas decorations at this time of year. Maybe your child’s best friend, estranged from their family, is a welcome guest at your house this year.
Preparing a beautiful gift such as this can not only help you stretch out your usual norms, but it may help you exercise the spirit of Christmas, which is festive love and cheer for everyone. Going out of your way can help you feel like you’ve done your part, and you can be sure that the gratitude will be immense. These are just a few examples, of course. Whatever works for you is valid and appropriate. Just be sure that whatever you do, you do for the right reasons, and it’s from the heart. Who knows? Someone may be arranging a similar beautiful gift for you right now!
Take A Small Vacation
Taking a small vacation can be an excellent means of enjoying the festive cheer while also securing a lovely unique experience to remember. Perhaps you wish to rent out a cottage for a couple of days and explore a charming, quaint village where you can be undisturbed with your family in nature, watching the snowfall.
Maybe you wish to take advantage of a last-minute package deal offering ski lessons for half the price with discounted plane tickets. For those already versed in this activity, a quick venture to let off some steam before the Christmas period can be great. Do you need to venture to a winter locale such as this? Not if you aren’t interested in that. Remember, the southern hemisphere experience Christmas with an entirely new frame of mind as the climates are inverted, and to that extent soaking up some rays may also be festive in its own way, if a novel experience for you.
Volunteer
Volunteering can be a great idea and may be a little more involved than connecting to the community. Christmas is a great time of joy and love, but it can also be hard for people who may be struggling or have little to call their own. This is why helping out at a homeless shelter feeding them on a winter’s cold night, or perhaps helping take a group of local elderly people to a local landscaped garden through a connection service, or reading to children in hospital can help you feel like you’ve done your part, and this can make a difference in the lives of those you help.
You needn’t do anything significant or give up all of your time. Often, it’s the little things that help the most, even if that’s buying the local homeless person a coffee and a bite to eat. Whatever you are comfortable with is more than okay, also donating to charity, as it’s the intentions that count.
Try Something New
Why not try something new, or perhaps something you would consider outside of your wheelhouse? Perhaps this year you wish to bake a beautiful Christmas cake with your children, and so gather the ingredients, the recipe, and spend all day on this activity? Maybe trying something new could be seeing the local Santa at a farm nearby, an experience you may have never taken your children to see as of yet? Trying something new can be important, and it will serve as the market to remember for Christmas 2019. To us, that can be a very special thing.
Indulge In Something Great
Indulge in something that helps you say ‘yes, that was an amazing experience.’ If it costs a little money or requires a small organization, doing this can be an incredible memory to build, and so it’s more than worth it. Perhaps you wish to treat your family to a wonderful theatre performance, especially your grandparent, who often struggles to get anywhere without loving supervision.
Maybe you wish to invite your friends and family to a perfect roast or Christmas dinner at a local restaurant, helping you take some lovely photos and eat course after course until you are almost fit to burst. Maybe you wish to indulge in something specific to you, such as treating yourself to a brand new television and speaker system to make sure those Christmas movies can be felt in full 4K resolution. Whatever works for you is fine. Yet we’d say that the final Christmas of the decade is due a little indulgence. Consider this your permission to do so.
To Conclude
In conclusion, Christmas can look like many things for many people. It can be an enticing experience, or it can be a peaceful time. It may be rife with celebration, or rife with relaxing. Whatever type of festive cheer you enjoy most, we hope you can experience it with those you love.
It’s a little way off yet, but we would like to wish you a fantastic Christmas and happy new year in advance.
