That Holiday Spirit
It’s not even Halloween, but I’m already thinking of Christmas.
When I was growing up, my parents drove us to Florida in the summers while playing their favorite Christmas tapes on repeat, and they worked on their Christmas shopping all year long. Summer is my favorite season, but Christmas is my favorite holiday, and I love December with a sparkling crystal love, scented with Chex Mix and spiced tea. I’ll start wearing Christmas shirts around Thanksgiving, and I’ll have the house decorated by that weekend at the latest. I love having my coffee early in the morning with the tree lights shimmering nearby.
In a Holidaze (paid affiliate link) by Christina Lauren is a book that captures that kind of mood. It’s a story inspired by Groundhog Day ideals, with Mae doomed to repeat the same stretch of her Christmas holidays over and over until she can figure out what to change to set things right, and it is so full of Christmas traditions and friends who became family that I didn’t mind the repeat plot that usually would have gotten old fast. (My husband cannot understand why I don’t like Groundhog Day as much as he thinks I should.)
It’s the lightest of light reads, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Oddly, it made me more excited for Halloween and Thanksgiving, as reading this book reminded me that holidays, whatever they look like this year, are coming, and I should never miss a chance to celebrate.
Some years, I get so excited about holidays that I whirl around and miss doing some of the things I love most. This year, I am using The Lazy Genius Holiday Docket to help me figure out what’s important for celebrating and make space for it. It’s a planner’s dream, and I am definitely a planner.
The Holiday Docket helps you figure out what matters to you about the holidays, how to center on those things, and how to plan for rest. It also helps you identify which things are a drain on your time and mental resources for the current time, and helps you let go of them so you can celebrate better. I can’t wait to sit down with it this weekend and make sure that in this upside down year, my family can figure out how to celebrate all three of these fall and winter holidays with grace, love, and joy, no matter which parts of our traditions need to look different this year.
If you’re struggling with how the holidays might look too, you might check out The Holiday Docket, and if you have any books that are a must-read for holiday spirit, I’d love it if you shared them. There can never be enough stories of celebration!
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