In my quest for a slower and more meaningful December spent with friends and family, I plan on completing 30 Days of tasks to get ready for Christmas before Thanksgiving...and I invite you to join me.
Day 1: Create a Holiday Vision
If you want to have a holiday that is meaningful to you and your family, first you need to decide what's important to you and plan a vision for how your holiday will look. Since every family has different values and vision, it will look a little different for everyone.
Since it's likely that you won't be able to complete everything that you'd love to do due to lack of time, it's important to have your holiday vision (or bucket list) so you can decide what's important and stays as part of your holiday traditions and what's not so important and goes.
So, grab a notebook and set aside a page for your Holiday Vision. Make sure you include your spouse, kids, other family members in your vision to make sure that everyone has a contribution to the plan.
Our Holiday Vision:
Normally, we spend time with my in-laws or my parents for Christmas Day. Since we moved far away from my in-laws we won't be able to spend Christmas with them this year. My parents may come visit us, but since we live in a new house in a new city, this is a great opportunity for us to come up with a plan that we can use (or modify) for the future.
I discussed our Holiday Vision with my family and it basically boils down to: celebrating Jesus, family, food, gifts, and giving.
What about you? We'll spend more time narrowing down what exactly these holiday values translate into with traditions, scheduling events in your calendar, etc