Maintaining positivity over the holidays is important to your entire well being: body, mind and spirit. According to PsychMaster article Positive Strategies for Coping with Holiday Blues, the holidays can be a difficult time because of all the extremes that people must integrate, including some contradictory values of spiritual ideals and materialism. All aspects of your health can be affected if you neglect your outlook on life. By building a positive point of view over the holidays, you can better take care of yourself, which leads to better taking care of your family too. While I’ve previously written an article in StudentFilmmakers Magazine about how staying positive matters for actors at work, positivity is also a crucial element of the holiday season.

Maintaining Positivity

Truly Use the Vacation as a Vacation

Prioritize time to rest and bond with your family. Three days after my husband chopped down an expensive, gigantic organic tree from a local tree farm, the cheap stand I bought broke, throwing the decorated tree to the ground in the middle of our playroom. My daughter burst into tears as the tree fell, cracking her heirloom baby’s first spoon ornament into two pieces. The holidays seem to create the most stressful situations because the expectations are so high for every moment to be beautiful and meaningful. Finding downtime when the only expectation is to relax is also important over the holidays.

Can you imagine this huge, wide tree on the floor? We made sure to turn a negative event into a positive experience by making saving and redecorating the tree a special experience.

Can you imagine this huge, wide tree on the floor?
We turned a negative event positive as saving and redecorating the tree became a special experience.

Try Something New

While I search every website looking for the most in demand item that Santa promised to bring, my budget becomes incredibly tight. Vacations are often off the table for many families over the holidays. If you can take a trip, try some of the ideas in my Model Life Magazine article Have a Rockin’ Holiday in Music City. To have a less expensive experience, treat yourself to a small, special adventure in your own hometown. Visit an event that you wouldn’t usually attend. You might discover something so amazing that it becomes a tradition for your family to attend yearly.

Remember the Reason for the Season

Growing up, I had the most meaningful Christmas Eve experience attending midnight mass at my local Catholic parish every year. With the stars twinkling outside, Santa’s gifts always seemed less important to me than the gifts that the shepherds brought Jesus in the nativity scene under our tree. Now in my family, focusing on the spiritual side of the holiday helps my children prioritize the right things during the Christmas season too. Saying prayers and discussing the meaning of Christmas help my children focus on the idea that faith and belief matter.

How will you keep Christmas positive this year? For more tips, check out Parenting, and follow Theresa’s Reviews on FacebookTwitterPinterestInstagramFlipboard, and Youtube.

About The Author

Theresa has been writing since 2010 in magazines and online. Her lifestyle and parenting expertise has been featured in publications, including ShopSmart and Scholastic. She earned an M.Ed in Elementary Education from Vanderbilt as well as a BA in History from Flagler College, and she is a certified teacher.

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16 Responses

  1. Heather

    I love how to keep things more simply and just enjoy the season, those are the bes moments. Stopping by from Countdown2Xmas!

    Reply
  2. JoAnn

    I need a break! Desperately 🙂 It’s hard to find rest when your work is at home. I simply haven’t found that shut off valve yet. Holidays are stressful, for sure 🙂 Thanks for the tips!

    Reply
  3. Holly Marie

    I definitely need to just take a deep breath and relax. I broke down last year because we were only able to buy my two year old a soccer ball for the holidays. I felt like a failure-but he LOVED that soccer ball and cherished it so much. We just watched The Polar Express and I bawled when the child received his first gift at home… I think I get caught up with trying to get everything perfect for my kids and am thankful for your sweet, genuine post about thinking positively during the holidays. Cheers friend!

    Reply
    • theresa

      That’s such an awesome story though! So inspiring for so many other parents who feel that they need to go broke to make their child happy.

      Reply
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  6. Shambray

    I love all of these, but the one I struggle with the most is using the vacation as just that. A vacation. I need to do it and unwind. Thank you for reminding me.

    Reply

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