You Deserve the Holiday Magic, Too!

Live Intentionally

Oct 19

Holidays are coming... Holidays are coming... Holidays are coming...

(Did the Coca-Cola holiday jingle start playing in your head? If not, you're welcome. LOL)

Maybe you LOVE the holidays. Maybe you don't. But if you're the person who manages much of what happens in your household, there's a good chance you're also the one responsible for making the holiday magic happen. And perhaps you're doing that at work, at church, or in your community, too.

Personally, I LOVE the holiday season. Always have. Early in our marriage, my hubby nicknamed me "Cindy Lou Who." Being a December baby, I swear it's in my DNA. Then again, he's ALSO a December baby, and his nickname is the Grinch. He even has the coffee mug and socks to prove it!

But as much as I love this season, I also know how complicated and stressful it can become. Navigating family dynamics, planning meals and festivities, fitting in traditions, finding time for rest, managing end-of-year goals, and somehow trying to enjoy it all. The to-do list seems to get longer every year.

But what if it doesn't have to?

Last year, my word of the year was SIMPLIFY. I spent a lot of time looking at different parts of my life and asking whether things still belonged there or whether it was time to let them go. Interestingly, my word for 2026 is RELEASE. Apparently, I'm still working on this. And one of the places I started simplifying was Christmas (a major holiday we celebrate in my family).

Because here's the thing about loving something: sometimes you keep adding MORE of it. At one point, I had FIVE Christmas trees, boxes of Department 56 lighted houses, and bins upon bins of holiday decor. And while I genuinely loved all of it, decorating had slowly become less about joy and more about obligation. Meanwhile, the Grinch couldn't care less whether we had a single decoration in the house. In fact, the less glitter, the better. All he really wants is cinnamon rolls and coffee on Christmas morning.

So last year, I scaled WAY back. And y'all... it was GLORIOUS!

I had so much fun decorating because it only took a few hours. I loved the simplicity of our home. And when the holidays were over, I wasn't dreading the mountain of work to put everything away.

What struck me was how much invisible work I'd been creating for myself in the name of making the holidays special. And I wonder how many of us do this in different ways.

We add another tradition, another gathering, another gift exchange, another elaborate meal, another thing we think we're supposed to do. Often with wonderful intentions! But then, sometimes the things meant to bring us joy can become the very things that exhaust us.

And that's had me thinking about this whole idea of LESS IS MORE.

Less doing might mean more time to rest. Less planning might create more space for spontaneity. Fewer traditions might mean we actually get to savor the ones that matter most.

I'm not suggesting we abandon the celebrations, traditions, and experiences we love. Heck, if decorating five Christmas trees fills your soul with joy, GO FOR IT! I still go bonkers with the twinkle lights inside and outside my home. But I am suggesting that we pause before automatically adding another thing to the list. This goes for the holidays AND for all the other end of year things before us.

What if we approached these last few months of the year with a little more intention? What if we got curious about what matters most to us, our families, our teams, and our communities before deciding what needs to happen? And what if we gave ourselves permission to stop doing quite so much... so we could spend a little more time BEING?

Because here's something I don't want you to forget: You deserve to experience the magic you're working so hard to create for everyone else.

Maybe it's time to bring some of that back home.