Day one, and the challenge is: Give yourself a break.
I said most of these challenges wouldn't involve money, and this one definitely doesn't. As the holiday approaches we all have lists of things to do. Family dinners, shopping for presents, annual Christmas family update letters, children's concerts, staff parties, white elephant gifts…
Is your blood pressure higher now than when you started reading? Sorry. The idea behind behind today's challenge is for you think for just a moment about that to-do list. Are you doing some of these things simply out of habit? Are there things you used to do before you had babies/ toddlers/ teenagers eating you out of house and home?
There are seasons for everything, even the fun things like Christmas cards. Give yourself permission to do the REALLY important things, and let one of the less important ones slide.
If there is one thing you could stop, even for this year, what would it be?
Make sure you've added your name to the first post for a chance to have me Gift your choice of Charity. Tomorrow I'll have a chance for you to win a gift as well as another challenge.
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I must say I already did what you suggest a couple of years ago.
We gave up on family visits for Christmas and spend it at home just relaxing and enjoying good food.
The year I decided to stop doing Christmas cards, it was like a weight disappeared from my neck. We saw 80% of the people every week! Now I only send a few things, and I’m much happier!
We actually stopped it this year by mutual consent. All the adults have always drawn one name and then filled a stocking for that person. This year we drew names and then decided it was just to hard. So instead we are all buying $5 worth of scratch of tickets and then putting them ina pile. We will go around the room and each pick one until they are all gone. Anything over $10,000 has to be split *grins*
I love that idea! Hmm, may have to suggest it for next year if we’re home for the holidays.
Having to put all of the decorations back after it is over… that is one task I do not care for… it is fun to put them up, but not to put everything away after…
Lol! I gave the kids each a sturdy, decorated box for ‘their’ ornaments. Now they take them down as well as put them up. I make munchies and relax 😉
i would stop all the running around trying to get the presents and the food and the the little things that hubs deem i have forgotten . I have cut most of that down by doing my shopping online for the presents
Online, and gifts cards for the WIN. Totally.
Focusing on giving yourself a break is a great idea. I know plenty of people who do have elevated blood pressure at this time of year and the reminder to take a break is sometimes necessary. I’ve tried to give myself a break at the holidays and have done a pretty good job so far. I think, if I were to give something up, it would have to be stressing over getting the perfect gift for family members. I’ll just make sure to get gift receipts and let them decide whether or not they want to return whatever it is I end up getting for them.
The year my parents said ‘no more presents’ for them- I was so happy. Not that I don’t like giving them things, but what they need, they buy!
My Christmas is pretty low key most years. I send cards, but only because the dogs look so cute in their photo with Santa, my parents have everyone at their house for Christmas Eve – nothing for me to do, but get my nephews/niece presents (gift cards are my friend). My parents will come to my house on Christmas day, but that’s easy, I don;t make the traditional turkey/ham thing, just something simple or a new recipe if I’m feeling like it.
Making life easy is a great plan for the season.
Where’s MY card with your doggies on it? 😉
I only buy gifts for my kids now. I was so tired of trying to find a good gift for the parents and it was almost never what they wanted. I am happoer finding things online for my kids so I can stay out of the stores. I’d like to stop being so lazy. I need to get up and work out! 🙂
KittyKelly
Oh boy, there’s another challenge for us 😀 Just for you, look for a PHYSICAL challenge coming soon.
😛
Kelly, I’m with you, and even then, I buy very few things for the kids; we get them cool stuff all year round, so I think it’s silly to go overboard for one occasion. I think it puts the emphasis on the wrong message, at least for our family.
I took a nice long break this morning and finished an e-book–ahhhh 🙂
I still remember our friends asking why we didn’t save buying the new bike for a Christmas gift. Ummm, when you live in Canada, that’s almost cruel. A new bike you can’t ride for 5 months? LOL. We bought it in June and he got to use it all summer!
ROFL! I can’t understand why you’d wait either! For us, part of love is providing the things they want and need at the right times, not according to specific date on the calendar. This particular date on the calendar is meaningful to us spiritually, but not as a reason to gift 😉
I stopped giving Christmas cards- but I do email people cards:)
I’ve been doing a lot of thinking on this lately. This is the first year I’m giving gift certificates to my nephews and inlaws. It’s SO hard to find something unique for each person, and I was always stressing out. I finally realized I LOVE getting gift certificates so why not give them? I can spend time picking out stuff for our kids–because I know what they want and need:)
Smart move, Brenda! Gift cards ARE fun to receive, and much easier to give! 😉
Christmas cards – and I did stop them this year and last year I only did e-cards. Gotta save paper!
I’ve quit buying gifts for everyone I know these days and the people left that I do buy for a lot of them get gift cards. I’m trying to quit worrying myself to death about what to buy people. I only send out Christmas cards to my immediate family now.
I stopped decorating the apartment, since we spend the holiday away from here. We used to go to Mom’s Christmas Eve, and my daughter’s on Christmas Day. This year there will only be the one visit, to my daughter’s, and it still seems strange not to be planning the other trip.