Yes it is only four months, from today, until Christmas! I love Christmas and, in my secret way, I celebrate it all year long. I know some of you are reading this right now and rolling your eyes and telling me to zip my mouth!
Some people think of Christmas as busy, not enough hours in the day, HAVING to shop for gifts, spending way too much money and having to “perform” or keep up with the expectations of others.
Well what if this year we started now? WHAT!!! No seriously. What if we started now thinking of things we can do this far in advance to help minimize the stress? Here are a few suggestions:
- Start making a list of people you want to send Christmas cards to. Minimize it. Maybe you send electronic Christmas wishes to those you see frequently and cards to those you don’t. Or don’t send cards at all. Say What????!!! Yes, hours saved and I bet you might just take some pressure off of others who wish they could do the same thing.
- Start putting money back now for Christmas shopping. You can start a savings account at your local bank or find a safe place to keep $20 a week. It adds up and by the first of December you will have saved a couple hundred extra dollars.
- Start your list for those you wish to buy for and start looking for gifts now. Then take a box and place it in the corner of your closet or basement and keep your gifts there. Look for sales and be sure to keep your list with you at all times so you don’t “double purchase” when your normal Christmas shopping time comes around.
- Start showing acts of kindness NOW. It seems like around Christmas time is when everyone gets the kindness gene in full gear. We can do that all year long. Kindness matters and you can give your donations and random acts of kindness right now!
- Consider minimizing your decorating to be just what you and your family want and not try to meet the large expectations that you THINK others want. And if you have an Elf visit your Shelf…….start pinning some Pinterest ideas now! haha
But with all this being said, we really need to remember that Christmas is about the birth of Jesus. We get so caught up in all of the fun things of the season that sometimes we forget the real meaning. I love all the decorations, baking, lights, gift giving and gatherings, too. But since we are still four months out from the big day of celebration, maybe we start now to create the perfect Christmas. The one fit for our King!
Merry Christmas in August! 🙂
