It Will Still Be Christmas

‘Tis the season of joy, the season of wonder, and the season of traditions. Going into the Christmas season, I was determined to do more holiday things with the kiddos, start traditions, and make the season as magical as possible. I even got most of my gift shopping done before Thanksgiving in order to have more time to do the things. However, it hasn’t quite gone the way I was hoping and I’m ok with that. It’s still going to be Christmas with or without all the extra. 

Now that the kiddos are a little older and able to do more activities, I wanted to have special days of filling the house with magic moments and core memories.

Why did I want to do more things? Because I don’t have the space to make the house look Christmassy like I would want. I have two boxes of Christmas items that sit in the closet year after year because we don’t have the space to put it all out. The first obstacle was the tree. We haven’t had a tree since our first year of marriage and so this year I was determined to have some sort of tree because my kids are at the age of remembering. So I found a small 3- or 4-foot tree at the thrift store and set it on a turned over basket with a tree skirt. The kids LOVED it. Then, upon adding the lights, my kids kept saying, “Wow, it’s so sparkly!” The tree is a bit mismatched with the ornaments and they get moved around almost daily, but I wouldn’t change it. We strung some lights around our window and built-ins to add a bit more ambiance to the room. Even though it’s not what I dreamed of having for a Christmas tree, it still has that special glow when all the other lights are out.

I see moms posting about being all snuggled up together for family movie nights while watching holiday classics. I had high hopes this year of doing the same with my kids, with a bowl of popcorn while reliving childhood memories from movies such as White Christmas, Santa Claus Is Coming to Town, The Santa Clause, and Rudolph to name a few. My kids however do not want to watch Christmas movies — gah! I’ve even tried Frosty and they always tell me “No!” It’s two weeks until Christmas and the only holiday movie I’ve watched is Charlie Brown’s Christmas because I gave the kids no choice and I told them we could watch Paw Patrol after. 

We are a book-loving family, so I thought I would adopt the 25 days of books. We don’t have all 25 books, but I’m starting with what we have. The idea is that you wrap each book individually and the kids pick one book a night. I skipped the wrapping part and just stacked them in a pile. Is it working the way I hoped? No, but we have read a few of them along with our advent story every night. I’m hoping that as the kids get older and get more into the season, the traditions that I’m trying to start will grow and fill their hearts and memories with joy that will make them want to continue them year after year. 

Don’t forget about the crafts and the baking one is “supposed” to do this time of year! In previous years, we’ve made salt dough ornaments and have given them as gifts, but we had so many left over that I nixed them this year. I went simple instead and got some wooden trees from Target for the kids to paint and decorate our bookshelves with. That’s the only seasonal craft we’ve done. And our cookie baking…well, that happened at Thanksgiving. We haven’t done any baking together since. Am I concerned my kids will miss out? No, because it’s not about the things you do or don’t do. 

I find myself questioning if it still feels like the Christmas season if holiday music isn’t always playing, the house isn’t decorated as desired, the smell of cookies isn’t constantly lingering in the air, and Christmas movies aren’t on. The answer is yes! Yes, it is still the Christmas season, and yes, Christmas Day will still come and be just as magical for my kids even without all of the extra things this year.

You know why? Because whatever we do, we’ll be together and we will be celebrating the birth of our Savior.