Tag Archives: christmas music

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Making December Special

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December is a unique, special month.

There are parties to attend, gifts to buy, cards to send, food to make and eat, and memories to be made. Kids will be off from school; parents will be off from work; Christmas specials will be on TV.

If you plan as a parent, you can make December a special month.

Here are some ideas:

How to make Christmas special with your kids.

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Listen to Christmas music. I’m not a big fan of Christmas music. If you know me, this isn’t news. However, we listen to it almost non-stop until Christmas starting at Thanksgiving. Why? It is a good tradition. The songs are about Jesus, and my kids love music. I look for Christmas music we like and create a playlist that I load onto Spotify to listen to it wherever we are. And we try to listen to Christmas records on our record player as we slow down in December. This helps to change the month’s mood and communicates that this time of year is different. It has its music.

Watch Christmas Specials. This is one of my favorite memories from growing up, and they never get old.

The tree. Whether you go out and cut down your tree, buy one, or have a fake one (like we did in AZ), make putting up the tree special. This is our first year in 15 years when we got a real one! So build it up, plan it, make your ornaments, tell stories about the decorations you are putting up, and listen to Christmas music while doing it.

Do a special outing as a family. Some families go caroling or sledding. Some shop on Black Friday together. One of our traditions is to eat at the Ethiopian restaurant (one of our sons is Ethiopian) and then look at Christmas lights. Do some unique things during this month together. 

Eat special (and bad for you) food. I’m a health nut about what I eat. At the holidays, I ease off the gas pedal on that. Eat an extra dessert. Have the same thing each year to create a tradition. At our house on Christmas Eve, we make cream of crab soup and have chocolate fondue for dessert. We don’t make it any other time, so it is extra special.

Celebrate Advent. One of our favorites is, Counting the Days, Lighting the Candles: A Christmas Advent Devotional. Of course, we do this as well with Legos and the Jesse tree, but spend some time this month slowing down to celebrate Advent and how God is with us in the in-between. 

Give your wife a break. Our church closes its offices between Christmas and New Year’s, so our staff slows down and has a break (and there’s a good chance you’ll have some days off or work not quite as hard). During this time, I can give Katie some downtime to get out without the kids, take an extra coffee date with a friend, or take a nap. This is an excellent time for you to serve your spouse. You might also pick a time in December for her to sit at a coffee shop alone, get her nails done, or send her and some friends to dinner.

Slow down and be together. Years from now, your kids will remember very little about life as a child, but they will remember if you were there. So will you. Don’t miss it. Work isn’t that important. That party isn’t that important. Shopping for one more thing isn’t that important if it keeps you from being with those you love. I’ve been reminded recently, by the illnesses of close friends, of the brevity of life. If your kids ask you to snuggle or lie down with them, do it. One day they won’t ask.

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How to Catch Your Breath in December

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Right now, if you are like most people, you wonder how you will survive December and get everything you need. The list seems endless. Parties, gifts, people, food, traveling, more food, TV specials, plays, and recitals. The list is endless. People are coming and going. In college, you have finals on top of everything else. This is on top of what you normally do in life.

We know this isn’t how we should live, and it feels wrong at Christmas, but stopping to catch our breath seems silly. Impossible. UnAmerican.

It isn’t, and deep down, you also know that.

Here are 7 ways to catch your breath this month so that you head into the new year not exhausted but refreshed, and ready to tackle the New Year:

7 Ways to Catch Your Breath in December & be Ready to Tackle the New Year

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Schedule some downtime. If you’ve read my blog for any length, you know I believe that if something is not scheduled, it does not happen. We do things out of habit and planning, including wasting time watching TV or surfing the internet. Put into your calendar days and nights when nothing is happening. If you don’t, you will run from one thing to the next and not enjoy any of it.

If you don’t schedule some downtime, it won’t happen.

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Say no to something. If you schedule downtime into your schedule, chances are you will have to say no to something. This is hard to do. We like to say yes as much as possible, not miss anything, and be at all the parties and get-togethers, but we can’t and shouldn’t. If we say yes to everything, we will miss the important things. We will miss moments with our kids and friends we really care about and miss out on memories.

Have a food plan and stick to it. One of the areas that cause a lot of frustration for people on January 1st is how much they eat between Thanksgiving and Christmas. Don’t simply show up at the party and eat; have a plan. Here are a couple of ways: Take something healthy to the party. There won’t be a lot of healthy options, so bring one and eat it (think of the memory each year now when you and your friends laugh about the fact that you are the one who brings hummus to the holiday party). Another one? Don’t stand by the food. If you are away from the food, it makes it harder to overeat. The hardest one? Limit how much dessert you eat when you are at parties. And finally, get rid of leftovers as quickly as possible, even if you have to throw them out.

Key to losing weight in the holidays? Throw out leftovers quickly.

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Go to bed at 10 pm as often as possible. Sleep is one of the most overlooked but important areas of our lives. I know, you think you can survive on 4 hours a night and a Coffee IV drip plugged into your arm, but you can’t. You will crash, and that crash will happen sometime soon and ruin your holidays or at least make a dent in January when you need to get going for the new year. Get to bed. Don’t watch as much TV and if presents aren’t wrapped, put them in a bag and call it a win.

If presents aren’t wrapped, put them in a bag and call it a win.

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Don’t wait till January 1st to exercise. In January, health clubs everywhere will be packed. New Year’s Resolutions will be made to lose that holiday weight you put on. What if you didn’t wait until January to get into shape? Put it into your schedule now. If you work out regularly now, don’t quit over the holidays.

Plan fun memory moments. Christmas is a great time to make memories. The tree, decorations, TV specials, buying and wrapping gifts, plays, the food, the songs. All of it creates moments with family and friends in ways that other times of the year do not. Don’t miss this because you are busy doing other stuff. Spend time reading to your kids, TiVo the Christmas specials and watch them, listen to Christmas music all month, and take some special daddy (or mommy) dates with your kids. Make this time special and pack in the memories.

Make your goals for the New Year. Don’t wait till January 1st to make your goals for the New Year. Notice I didn’t say resolutions. Here is a simple process I use to help you set goals you will actually reach. Don’t make ten goals this year; make one. What is the one thing that, if you accomplished it, would make the biggest impact on your life and family? Do that.