The Busy Person Guide to the Christmas Season | Day 3
I've been promoting the idea of celebrating Christmas throughout the season, but this can be a little bit hard for most people, just based on time. Christmas is a hectic time of year because you have to pack your holiday activities into a time frame where you are busy with a variety of other things like work, school, chores, and travel. Because I want to help even the busiest person to make the most the 25 Days of Christmas, I put together this post with some ideas about celebrating when time is a limiting factor.
Daphne's Busy Person Guide the Christmas Season
A Christmas Stroll: even if you normally work through lunch or run home immediately after school to work on your homework, make a little time for a Christmas Stroll. Take 15 minutes, a half an hour, whatever time you can and take a quick jaunt to see the Christmasy sights. If you live or work in a city or nearby a main street this can be the Christmas window displays or the holiday decorations on the street. Those a little further out can enjoy walking through neighborhoods to see how everyone has decorated. The walk will do you good anyways! If you've got nowhere to walk, even a drive is a good change of scenery, so try that too!
Christmas Movies and More: Even the busiest people have the time to spend an evening watching their favorite Christmas movie. So relax one night and do that! If you have a little more time, I think a movie-based get together is the perfect and quick way to celebrate without having a huge party to plan. I do this with Love Actually most years. Invite over a few good friends and ask them to bring their favorite holiday drink or treat. Almost a ready-made party that is even good on a weeknight because when the movie's over so is the evening.
Be Generous: I find that being generous immediately gets me in the Christmas spirit. There are a variety of charities you can support during the holiday season, but I find the ones where I can play an active roll in making somebody else's Christmas dreams come true are the best. Whether you collect money from your office or schoolmates or you fund it on your own, you can go shopping for someone in need. There are a variety of charities that accept gifts or donations around Christmas, and it doesn't take much time to help someone else have a Happy Christmas.
Christmas Shopping: Yes, it's going to be busy. Yes, you are going to have trouble finding a parking spot. Yes, you are probably going to meet some frazzled, unpleasant people. But take all of that in stride and keep the spirit of Christmas in your heart. Turn Christmas Shopping into something fun and not an obligation that you have to make it through. In fact, I actually buy most stuff online and just take a trip or two to the mall or a Christmas-y shopping area just for the experience. Just take an hour and see what kind of holiday fun you can have.
Christmas Music: Even if you are busy, you can still listen to some holiday tunes. Just throw on some headphones and continue working on that spreadsheet, report or blog post (yup, I'm doing this RIGHT NOW). Or throw on some music and sing along while you're preparing dinner or in the car stuck in holiday travel. Music just has that way of lifting your spirits and making you feel merry. Check out my Christmas Playlist if you are looking for something to listen to
Change your phone or computer wallpaper: think of this as the quickest form of decorating. If you don't have the time or money to decorate your home, just find a holiday photo and set it as a wallpaper on your phone or computer. Then you will feel just a little bit Christmas-y every time you look at your phone.
Light a candle: sense memory is a fascinating thing. Somehow a familiar smell can bring up special memories of years past. So when you want to get in a holiday mood and don't have time to go out and do something, just light your favorite holiday calendar and be reminded of Christmas memories. Whenever I smell a bayberry candle, I can't help but remember Christmases with my family over the years.
VLOGMAS: not everyone is as into YouTube as I am, but I find that Christmas can be the best time for YouTube. All the YouTubers are putting out festive videos, some EVERY DAY. This every day festiveness is known as Vlogmas and consists of DIY, Decorating, Baking, and Daily Vlogs of all things Christmas. So if you don't have time to do all kinds of holiday things, take a break and watch some YouTubers and live vicariously through them. Here's just a few recommendations of those I know with be great to watch: Zoella, Tanya Burr, EssieButton, Fleur DeForce, LilyPebbles, ChewingSand, and EveryDayJim
Read my blog: a shameless plug! As you may have heard, I'm going to be really Christmas-y this month, so if you want a little piece of the holidays then stay tuned!
I'm sure there are a bunch of other things that can make a busy person's life a little more Christmas-y. Share your ideas in the comments or using #MoreThanThe25th on social media.
