Holiday Cheer

December Holiday Marathon!

The completion of the last of the turkey leftovers marks the beginning of that December Holiday Marathon. I like to look at it as a chance to accentuate the positive as the old song lyric goes. Unfortunately, that all gets lost in the hustle of the holiday. In my family, we decorate early and it stays up late and largely because of our work schedules. My children or the cats don't seem to mind the actual clutter of Christmas - not as much as the adults anyway. There are a few tricks to accentuate the positive during this season.

Reflect on your traditions!

Why do you do the things you do? Why do you enjoy it? For myself, growing up - we never decorated to early in the deep south - largely because everything would have been bone dry by Christmas but largely because my parents weren't into. These days my children like the rest of the world have trouble getting through Halloween -- but as a family -- we drag it all Thanksgiving and as my grandmother would say -- "We put up Christmas." My wife was particularly amused by that saying. We take a couple of days, dig through the boxes, get what we're going to use, and then put it away till the holidays are over.

Plan out your holidays!

My wife puts the "P" in planning (I do too). We have a general idea of all the things we will do for the holidays. A few special services, maybe a party or two and we normally do some shopping. Oh yeah, work is very busy this time of year as well. We try not to over schedule, overstress and hopefully not to overdo our commitments through the season. Take time to enjoy the things you do. Being one of those parents that runs from event to event with out children, we try and schedule enjoy slack in out scheduling that we can actually enjoy what we're doing.

Cut Back and Enjoy!

We all get on that treadmill at times, that can be our complete undoing. When we should get rest -- and we don't. When we overstress ourselves because something isn't perfect, we can suck the life out of Christmas! It takes a minute to realize that a lot of what we do at Christmas is clutter. For us, we have children that really want us. Then we want all the other stuff. Figuring out what is important is important.

Get the Best of Christmas!

One of the biggest parts of Christmas is gift giving. When we give gifts of time or from the heart -- or both - we really bring ourselves back to the best part of Christmas. This rejuvenates our spirit and allows us to get more of the holiday spirit and turn the volume in our own lives. Our hopeful plug here -- Delicate Decadence has many things we can offer for instant last minute gifts for those you are thinking about this holiday. Stop in and see us -- oh yeah -- do the other stuff as well!