This week, I’m talking about cutting back on Christmas. 

Today, I’m talking about the problem of too much Christmas. 

My favorite holiday tradition from the earliest I could remember was going to the Christmas tree farm the day after Thanksgiving every year. My sister who is 10 years older than me was usually home from school, so I was excited to spend time with her. We went to the same tree farm every year, got our handsaw, ventured out into the far corners of the farm to find the perfect 8 ft Noble fir. Then after we found our tree we would head inside for hot cocoa and a visit with Santa, usually purchasing a new ornament for our tree on our way out. It was always a perfect day, and looking back, I think I enjoyed getting our tree more than I enjoyed Christmas morning. The tree farm we visited every year was eventually sold and after that it was never the same. We stopped the day after thanksgiving tradition, but with my husband and kids we still venture out every year to pick out and cut down our tree - and living in Oregon, that’s pretty easy to do with Christmas tree farms about as common here as cornfields in Iowa. 

The point of this story is that there are certain holiday traditions that are worth it - for me, that’s the annual trip to the tree farm. But there are a lot of other things that we do and spend money on during the holidays that have the opposite effect. They cause stress, strain our wallets, and suck all of our time to the point where we need the entire month of January just to recover. 

The problem with Christmas is that we as a society have just ruined it I think. Our society has forgotten Who Christmas is all about and we’ve replaced Jesus with Santa, and quality time with family to mowing people down for a big screen TV on Black Friday. 

Christmas has become this hectic and stressful time and the problem is so widespread that more than half of Americans are burned out - 69% of us are stressed by the feeling of having a “lack of time,” 69% of us are stressed by the financial strain of Christmas.

And nearly half of Americans - 45% - would prefer to skip Christmas all together. Yet, we still do all the things and spend all the money. If you’re feeling like it’s time to redefine the Christmas season in your own life, tomorrow we’ll get started by talking about why and how you actually go about doing that.

That’s it for today. But before you go, you probably know someone who is close to retirement and could benefit from listening to this podcast. If so, please share this podcast with them and encourage them to check it out by adding it to their flash briefing in Alexa or subscribing wherever they listen to podcasts! 

Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.

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