Several years ago, I noticed something.

I hated DISLIKED November and December.  I dreaded them….I dreaded the holidays. 

Always running behind.  Frazzled.  Forgetful. 

It was so stressful.

I knew it was time for a change.  I wanted to find the magic in the season again.  Even more, I wanted my family to experience a peaceful season–not a season where mom lost her sanity for extended periods of time!  I say that in a silly way, but the truth is I felt completely out-of-control and unable to make healthy decisions.  Instead, I was just going along…adding activities and events and gifts and Pinterest ideas at an astounding rate.  I wanted to keep up with everyone else.  I wanted to make the most perfect, yummy treats, complete Christmas bucket lists, buy amazing gifts, and accomplish mile-long to-do lists.  It was exhausting and, quite honestly, unnecessary.

I knew it had to stop, so last year, I decided to run a “Simplify Your Season” experiment on myself.  I wanted to see if it was actually possible to SLOW the season down and savor it.  Last year was a beautiful season for us.  I remember sitting back and watching as friends and family filled up their schedules.  They were frazzled and exhausted, and for once in my life, I wasn’t!  Instead we chose to be extremely INTENTIONAL.  I can truthfully say it worked.  It really worked!

Over the course of the next two weeks, I will be sharing with you the seven ways we simplified our season last year…and some cute printables, too!  Today, we’re going to jump right in with number one.

Download your FREE Holiday Planning Family Priorities Sheet.  If you have Adobe Reader installed, you should be able to edit the fields!

1) Simplify Your Season by Setting Priorities

The very first way to simplify your season is to simply be intentional and decide what is important to your family.

I can hear some of you asking, “But what does that mean?  What does that look like?”

First, I want you to think about your past holiday seasons.  Grab a notebook and answer some questions:

• What was wonderful about them?
• What was terrible?
• What do you want to keep?
• What do you want to change?
• When you come to January 1, 2015 and look back over the past two months, what do you want to be able to say about the holiday season of 2014?

Next, I want you to look over your answers.  Decide what is most important to you and your family this holiday season, and figure out how you’ll keep those priorities at the forefront of the next two months.  I would suggest writing them down and keeping them where you will look at them daily.  When an opportunity presents itself, you can look at those priorities and use them to make decisions about how best to spend time and money.

Here is an example of our priorities this year:

1)  Remember and celebrate our most precious gift of the Saviour.

2)  Spend time with family

3)  Make memories with our favorite traditions.

4)  Serve others in a tangible way.

Remember, in this season, you don’t have to do it all!  In fact, let’s journey together and cut our to-do lists in half, say no when something doesn’t fit our priorities, and let our season be imperfect–but intentional!

Simplify Your Season!!

Coming up in the series:

Slow Your Schedule

Simplify Your Home Management

Shop for Gifts

Save Your Sanity

Serve Others

Savor the Season