All is Calm...Yeah, Right!

This month’s “Can I Be Candid?” is written by Leslie Eichhorn, Writer at NancyHicksLive.

Have you ever noticed that sometimes the Christmas you picture in your head is often not the one you experience in real life?

Here’s my mental picture of the holidays: the house is festive and bright, the presents are wrapped beautifully, the kids behave perfectly. Everyone praises you for a job well done.

Yeah, RIGHT. This is not what happened at my house this month.

To start, our kids had the flu because the holiday season is also respiratory virus season. (Are there any Christmas song lyrics about snot and coughing?)

It was finally time to decorate our Christmas trees (yes, Christmas TREES - I have zero holiday chill), but in less than 5 minutes, we had a pile of broken ornaments and 3 crying children.

Oh, I bought Christmas presents early, too! And guess what? My children played hide-and-seek and found them. Merry Christmas, kids!

UGH. I had such amazing plans in my mind for this year.

The decorations, the cards, the presents, the holiday party circuit…it’s a lot to accomplish in 25 days. We women often carry the mental load of the holidays for our families. That mental load quickly becomes a burden especially if we’re striving for a vision of perfection we’ve created for ourselves.

This may go against your holiday tradition-loving heart, but hear me out - what if we laid that mental holiday burden down? 

What if:

• You bought a smaller Christmas tree and only hung up your favorite ornaments?

• You said “no” to the group cookie exchange and met a good friend for dinner?

• You posted a family picture online or texted it instead of mailing cards?

• You didn’t cook Christmas dinner and had a family potluck with different dishes to try?

This year, I cut back on decorations that didn’t bring me joy. I’m not going to a big holiday party. Our family is only going to one house for Christmas Eve instead of three.

You can’t singlehandedly change the cultural expectations that come with the holidays - but you can change how you respond to it. By laying even a small part of that burden down, you can enter into the Christmas season with joyful anticipation, without feeling dread or failure.

You are more than the gifts you picked out, the Christmas cards you meticulously designed or the fabulous dinner party you planned. Jesus came to Earth because He loves YOU - just as you are. Bring your messy bun and your cup of coffee and sit at His feet.

We so often hear Advent described as a time of peace, comfort and rest. Let’s spend more time in that mental space than in the crushing weight of expectations of the season.

Wishing you joy and peace this Christmas season,

The Nancy Hicks Live Team