EPISODE 016: Holiday Traditions
Today is all about Holiday Traditions and getting CLEAR on what we are celebrating, how we are celebrating, and WHY! Let’s dive in!
With Christmas being next week, I wanted to record an episode all about holiday traditions and how we celebrate with our families. Traditions are obviously a huge part of Christmas but sometimes they can be a point of stress and a feeling of obligation more than having that feeling of excitement. I have three areas I wanted to kind of break up today’s topic into:
Evaluating Current Holiday Traditions:
I think it’s really important to kind of take inventory of what your traditions even are! Now, if you’re like me when I first did this: You might do things every year that you don’t even think of as a “ tradition” or think that you don’t really have traditions. I thought this when my kids were still really really young and I felt like we hadn’t established things yet for our new family. But there were still things that we did every year or things that just kept happening- so those got written down as traditions.
Once you’ve got a grasp on what things you even do each year. I think it’s important to recognize how those things fit, how they make you feel. Are they things you look forward to every year? Do you get excited thinking about doing them again? When other people ask about your traditions do you light up explaining the ones you love? Are there some things on your list that you’ve just done forever and that’s the only reason you still do them? Are there things on there that make you eye roll, or when it comes time to do them you wanna fake sick and see if you can get out of it?
I love the idea of evaluating the things that you are doing every year and figuring out if you even LIKE DOING THEM! I’m all about being intentional with your time and energy and traditions are NO exception. I also think This idea of evaluating or taking inventory can be ESPECIALLY helpful if you are newly married, or have really young kids and you are still trying to figure out what your traditions are or how to morph traditions you grew up with, with the things your spouse or partner grew up with. And how to make it all work for your family.
2. Letting Go of Traditions that aren’t working anymore:
So there are probably some things on your list that aren’t “sparking joy” as Marie Kondo would say...and to that I say, let it go. But easier said than done. It’s so funny how we will keep doing something we don’t love or even HATE out of guilt or obligation- and those are exactly the feelings I’m hoping to cultivate more of this season. Insert eye roll.
If a tradition is starting to feel more like an obligation than a celebration, it’s time to say BYE! And we need to normalize that! We need to normalize the evolution of traditions. It’s okay to evolve.
I mean, HELLO, that’s pretty much the whole point of human existence- but we get so rooted and stuck in our ways sometimes and let’s face it change is hard and we don’t want to rock the boat, or make someone feel bad, so we just keep on doing the same things over and over again. Instead of doing that and holding onto things that are taking away from the season and taking away joy- why not shift into something that ADDS more joy.
And in saying goodbye or in shelving an old tradition, that’s not to say it has to be terrible and you have to have these negative feelings towards it. NO! It’s perfectly okay to have fond memories of something, and also acknowledge if that something just isn’t working anymore. It doesn’t mean you NEVER loved it, it just means you're doing something different now.
3. Creating new family traditions.
As I talked about a little bit in last weeks episode was the idea that as moms we feel responsible for “creating the magic” and we put this unnecessary pressure on ourselves to make the holidays this above and beyond magical season for our kids and families. I see if everywhere.
On IG just last week I saw multiple posts with things like “ HELP! I need ideas, what family traditions do you have?” Or if you type in Christmas traditions on Pinterest you get a search result FILLED with posts like 80 Christmas traditions you haven’t thought of. Or 25 magical ways to celebrate Christmas, or or 18 Christmas traditions your child will ALWAYS remember.
I’m not saying that you should ditch Pinterest completely or never bounce ideas around with friends or other moms- but maybe instead of approaching the idea of creating traditions around what OTHER people do- you get a bit more intentional about what your family actually LIKES to do, and let your traditions kind of create themselves organically.
I hope this episode was helpful and that it got you thinking about the things you do that take up space in your life. Life is beautiful, this season is beautiful and I want nothing more than for you to be filled with joy and peace and to be able to just have ease during this time of year and enjoy the things you are doing with your family. I want you to be able to be present and not be worried about the next thing you need to get done. Be simple, be intentional, and have a very Merry Christmas.
LINKS AND OTHER HELPFUL THINGS:
Positively Merry Course: Use code MERRY to save $5.00