When Christmas rolls around, I’m always drawn to books or articles about how to simplify the holidays. Christmas was magical to me when I was a kid, but when Ben and I got married, and suddenly had seven different gatherings to get to in the span of a week or two, the holiday lost a lot of it’s charm for me. I love family and traditions and festivities, but I ended up feeling frazzled, overwhelmed, exhausted, and in need of some quality alone time at Christmas.
One of the solutions to this came from book no longer in print, which basically said, “Cut out what you don’t enjoy, and do more of what you love about Christmas.”
As I was thinking about this last week, I tried to remember the most enjoyable Christmas I’ve had as an adult, and the usual things which came to mind were the traditions we’ve established as our own little family, and the days we enjoy at our parents’ houses, or when the gatherings are a little more spread out, with recovery time in between! But what popped into my mind which surprised me most was a spark of pleasure when I remembered the Christmas I did a 31 day photo challenge in December.
It seems silly – taking more pictures increased my enjoyment of Christmas? But it really did, maybe because photography is one of my favourite art forms, and art is always good for the soul.:) Or maybe it was because slowing down, paying attention, looking for the little things that make Christmas special for our family stayed with me.
Whatever the case, I decided to follow the joy, and started a Christmas photo challenge for this year. This is not going to produce deep, spiritual reflections on the birth of Jesus, or anything like that. We’ll see if that post comes at a different time! Nope, this is just to take a creative breather, have some fun, and capture some pretty holiday pictures to look back on in the future:
Red:
Family:
Lists/Planning:
Decorate:
Sweet:
Anika decided to join me, so here are her pictures:
Red:
Family:
Lists/Planning:
Decorate:
More to come! What do you do when you need to take a break and relax a little over the holidays?
Ordinary Days 
That’s a great idea and I love the themes for each day. Lovely photos too; thanks for sharing!
I love it! I’m finding that this year I feel like participating more in Christmas…so I am having fun doing some of the hustley/bustley things. Last year we were heavy in the adoption wait and I felt like Christmas was an inconvenience and insult to my longing (how selfish…). This year I’m actually so full of rejoicing to be able to do things with TWO kiddos, so I’m thoroughly enjoying the chai mix making, the cookie decorating, the shopping and wrapping…
Oh, this is so great! I can relate. I’ve had some dark Christmases, and it is wonderful to come out into the light and feel joyful at Christmas. 🙂 Kids make it even easier and add so much excitement! I’m glad to hear you’re able to enter fully into the delight!
Pingback: Ready or Not, Here Christmas Comes | Ordinary Days