December is a very hectic month. While it is filled with wonderful events and a magical holiday – you hardly have a moment to rest and relax. You just finished celebrating Thanksgiving and Christmas is fast approaching. The sooner you begin preparing for Christmas, the sooner you can relieve yourself of stress and tensions.
Celebrating Christmas
One way to ease your stress is to repeat whatever worked well last year. Just be traditional and follow the same preparations you did last year.
You will probably be hosting at least one holiday event. Having a good estimate of the number of guests you can expect will help you plan your Christmas activities. You should send out invitations with an RSVP. This will help you determine the exact number of guests to expect. The invitations can be in the form of personalized Christmas cards. In this way, the invitations can also serve as your Christmas greeting to them.
Keep in mind that your guest lists – like a Christmas card list – should be updated each year. After all, people move in and out of our lives for different reasons. A current list can save you time and more.
Christmas Theme
Once you have an idea of your guests, you can decide on the type of Christmas party. If the majority of the guests are young teenagers, you should schedule some lively activities to keep them busy on Christmas day. Adults and senior people might want to have more relaxation and rest. They may prefer talking and reminiscing about old times. Parlor games and watching Christmas parades may be their preferred type of enjoyment.
You should plan some activities for the young children. They get bored very fast. They are very active and perky. Doing Christmas decorations may be an ideal activity for the small children. Typical ideas include writing letters to Santa and making simple decorations – such as paper garlands or Styrofoam snowmen. All the activities should revolve around a central theme. The theme may be a long-awaited family reunion or a grand get-together of friends and relatives.
Traditions
It is hard to deviate from traditions, such as decorating the Christmas tree, hanging up mistletoes and gift giving. Many people follow traditions. They also have traditional expectations from other people. If you plan to deviate from some of the traditions, you should inform your guests beforehand. You should be sensitive to their comments and reactions to your plans. There is nothing wrong with conforming to tradition.
Gift giving is a way of expressing gratitude. It is not so much the gift as the thought behind the gift. If gifts will be a part of your Christmas activities and you expect guests to take a part in this – you should make sure they are aware of this ahead of time. Provide them with some details about the type of gift they should bring and any price point or other requirements.
Some people will even make their own handcrafted gifts to make the gift more personalized and meaningful. Gifts should be appropriate to the recipient. Many people forget to give due consideration to the type of gift because of the rush and numerous preparations that have to be done. You can establish the type of gift at the time you make the guest list. Make sure to put alternative gift options in case your primary gift is not available.
It’s definitely time to prepare for Christmas – if you haven’t started, take this as a warning; you are getting behind!
