Challenging times make for innovative ideas, quick decisions, difficult choices, sacrifice and compromise. This Christmas may be one of those challenging times–financially, emotionally and otherwise. Yet, we want to enjoy the holidays as much as possible. We can have a merry, meaningful and memorable Christmas if we draft our own keep-list. The following suggestions are designed as easy reminders and quick shots of motivation when overwhelming situations step in and threatens to make the holidays more stressful than special.?
Keep it real
Christmas has morphed into a larger than life commercial holiday. It is easy to forget the story behind it and the significance behind the story. If we keep it real, we can expect the promised joy, peace and goodwill to always be there.
Keep it simple
You cannot go wrong with simplicity from dressing, to decorating, to shopping, to entertaining. A simple Christmas takes away the usual stress and anxieties and opens the door to the simple enjoyment of a wonderful holiday.
Keep it frugal
Frugality is the new watchword in these challenging economic times.
Frugality and simplicity overlap; they feed off each other. When we look for ways to be frugal at Christmas time, our creative juices flow. ?
Keep it positive
Negativity is everywhere and can mar this special holiday. Maintaining and sharing positive thoughts and putting forth positive energy in everything we do during the holidays, helps to brighten our outlook on what seems negative in our lives, the country and the world. A positive mindset also influences the people we live and work with and those we meet during our day. We are shouldering a great deal of negativity in the world. Being positive is worth it, even for a short while.?
Keep it festive
Every chore can be a pleasure if we tune in to your favourite radio station or slip in a Christmas CD–carols, parang and other seasonal music–while we are busy cleaning, decorating and cooking. We can take our queue from the stores. Christmas music will get us in a festive mood.
Keep your greetings sincere
Merry Christmas! Happy Holidays! and Compliments of the Season!
These are three popular Christmas greetings. We could find ourselves mouthing them as we rush around doing the things we usually do at this time. Although we might despise the robotic utterances, we may have no choice but to mete out these greetings by our employer's request. It may also be a mindless and heartless response to other people's greetings. We should make an effort to utter sincere words from a sincere heart.?
Keep an attitude of gratitude
Christmas is the perfect time to not only remember our blessings but to relish them. Personal blessings, blessings our family members enjoy individually or collectively, blessings that linger and multiply, even as life circumstances change.
Keep a heart for sharing
No list is complete without at least one item geared towards sharing. Moreover, sharing is central to the Christmas holiday. We are blessed when we share from our excess. We are doubly blessed when we share from our limited or meagre means.
Keep it going
Every year, people lament that the sentiments and actions so evident during the Christmas season last no longer than the passing Christmas fever itself. It is one thing to gripe about this and quite another to take up the mantle and do everything in our power to take the same sentiments and actions far into the New Year. Each of us can keep one thing going, just one–visiting relatives, giving time, supplies and gifts to orphanages, attending church, keeping our homes clean, uncluttered and organised, making an effort to have family meals round the dining table, etc.
Keep appointments with yourself
Too often we hustle and harass ourselves and others to get things done in time for the holidays. We shop, clean, decorate, cook and bake, visit, entertain, attend dinners and parties etc. One thing we tend to neglect is caring for ourselves. Our minds are on overload–so many tasks to accomplish on a deadline. We push our bodies beyond its limit. To enjoy the best the holidays have to offer, we should look out for the early signs of mental stress, physical fatigue and emotional shutdown.