How to Stay Present this Holiday Season

The holidays are a time of celebration, filled with family gatherings, church functions, school programs, gift giving, and more! Do you love seeing how much you can do and how much fun your family can fit into one holiday season? This habit may sound good until you spend the day running from place to place and at the end of that day have no idea if you even smiled once. This year, rather than getting caught up in working for the season, let this time serve you. How can you slow down, enjoy each moment, and stay present this holiday season?

• Do a tough evaluation of your schedule
  

  Discover what really works for your family and do your best to implement this schedule. For many people, myself included, a schedule can remove all opportunity to show the grace we and others need. Don’t do this. Instead, make a schedule that allows margin, joy, and memories—not anxiety, rushing, and exhaustion.
  
  

• Ask the Holy Spirit the “why.”
  

  What inside you makes you feel the need to rush to everything and everywhere? To what are you running? And from what are you running? What are you trying to create? What memory are you trying to erase through doing something different?
  
  

• Make a list of events you would like to include this Christmas Season.
  

  Ask your family for input on how they want the holiday season to look. Take these suggestions and then examine the logistics. If three things fall on one weekend in December, rank them in the order of what will bring the most life to your family. Creating a calendar and priority list seems simple, but it will give you a needed visual for your days, weeks, and moments together.
  
  

This excerpt came from Dr. Cassie Reid’s book, Unwrapped: Open the Gift of Holiday Sanity. Cassie Reid shares 25 secrets to navigating the holidays with grace and composure, no matter what your family may be like.