This Christmas won't be like the ones you have curated and cherished. This is a holiday during a pandemic and we are having a universal experience of learning what that can look like. 

As moms, we do most of the Christmas planning. We have gifts lists, treats, parties planned, gatherings set up. This job is often an exhausting one but one that we go through every year because we are always longing for those special moments of joy, hope and connectedness that are possible. 

Christmas during covid means the plans we make, the gatherings, the parties are all going to look different. 

That is hard to accept. We long for what we know and what feels like Christmas to us.  This year means teaching ourselves new ways to feel Christmas. 

If you are like most moms, and myself, it is a hard task to think outside the box, beyond our expectations and get excited about something different when we have this idea in our mind of what Christmas SHOULD be. 

The first step here is to acknowledge your expectations. Because here is the issue - we have a lot of expectations - about who does what and how they act and how they feel, and what we will get to do, and all the ideals we have in the back of our mind. We might not be fully aware of them.  But trying to be proactive by noticing them before they go unmet (=resentment) the more we can manage them ahead of time. This includes letting unrealistic ones go, AND taking responsibility for making them happen. 

 

In this episode:

Handling your Christmas expectations 

Where 'all or nothing thinking' can keep you stuck and blocked off

Two things that can bring more intentionality into your Christmas: values and the bucket list

How to use these two things in a way that works for you and your family

Letting yourself feel disappointed about the Christmas you had hoped for

Finding ways to take your power back and plan a Christmas you can get excited about

 

All of this is unpacked in the Simple Christmas Planner. Which is designed to walk you through designing, planning and DOING your Christmas with intention and in a way that works for you and your family. Because the goal is to have a Christmas season that you can SHOW UP for, one that you can feel present for, one that you can actively enjoy in the moment! This doesn't JUST HAPPEN, you need to do it with intention. 

 

Full transcript at the bottom of this post. 

 

Links mentioned:

The Live your VALUES worksheets

The Facebook community group

Say hi on Instagram

The ON PURPOSE workbooks (Simple Christmas Planner)

 

Episode Transcript

Episode main topics: Christmas, expectations, planner, kids, plan, values, Christmases, year, excited, happen, podcast, family, simple, talk, list, intentional, feel, purposeful, bucket list, purpose

Welcome to the Simple on Purpose Podcast! This podcast is your check-in your regular reminder, your regular coffee date with me, where I remind you to bring it all back to simplify, slow down and show up for your life, the life right in front of you, you are allowed to enjoy it.

Today I want to talk about an issue that we're all edging into. And that's Christmas. I'm in Canada. So we've had snow for a while where I live. We're all thinking about Christmas, I see Christmas trees in the windows around the neighbourhood. Christmas music is popping up on the playlist. My kids are trying to play it - everyone's just getting ready for Christmas. But without really knowing what to expect, right? And I know each province, each state, each country is going through something a little bit differently.

I will say though I am done my Christmas shopping, I'm so proud of that I didn't want to rely on a lot of shipping. So I went to the stores. In early November, I had a list I stuck to the list and made a budget I stuck to the budget I'm really proud of myself. One thing that we have adopted here is to do the for gifts for our kids where it's something you want so...