33 Steps to Christmas Cheer
Written by Krystal
Christmas is just a few weeks away so I thought I would share my own personal “33 Steps to Surviving Christmas”, gleaned from years of holiday experience. Take a break from the rush and enjoy.
1: Walk into any store and see red and green everywhere. It’s here.
2: Panic. Solution: buy and drink one carton of egg nog.
3: Ask family what they want for Christmas and realize you don’t have enough money to buy your whole family new cars.
4: Panic. Solution: drink venti extra hot gingerbread latte from Starbucks.
5: Buy decorations and decorate dorm room with friends.
6: Watch Christmas movie that makes you wish for the simpler days of holiday joy.
7: Panic. Solution: eat a whole chocolate orange in 2 minutes.
8. Realize it’s only the beginning of December.
9. Buy a new Christmas CD and listen to it constantly.
10. Go shopping for presents, but find nothing.
11. Panic. Solution: eat gingerbread men limb by limb.
12. Go in on a gift with your siblings because who can thin of more than one thing to buy him! Men are so hard to shop for.
13. Hang up the lights.
14. Go to three stores to find the perfect Christmas tree. Buy the tree you saw in the first store.
15. Stare at the tree for 3 days, then finally set it up.
16. Realize that there are no presents under the tree.
17. Panic. Solution: drink 4 cups of hot chocolate.
18. Finish Christmas shopping and wrap presents.
19. Realize you forgot to buy a turkey.
20. Panic. Solution: eat the fruit cake that the crazy neighbor brought over.
21. Look at calendar and discover it is Christmas Eve.
22. Panic. Solution: eat eat a whole box of candy canes.
23. Open one “mystery present.”
It’s always PJs.
24. Go to family friends’ house for cookies and wine before the Christmas Eve Church service.
25. Finally go to bed… but get no sleep.
26. Wake up early and “gently” wake the others by jumping on all their beds.
27. Open presents from Santa.
28. Eat breakfast.
29. Open more presents.
30. Prepare Christmas dinner.
31. Panic. Solution: eat 2 spoonfuls of whipped cream that is meant for dessert.
32. Serve Christmas dinner.
33. Panic because Christmas is over. Solution: eat leftovers for a month.
These are my traditions, what makes Christmas unique to me. What does your Christmas look like? How do you deal with the “panics” of the holidays (besides eating everything in sight)?
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Love the list. Is there really a way to handle the panic other than eating, though? ;)
But seriously, my favorite thing about the holidays and the best way for me to destress during the craziness are one in the same: watching the Christmas Classics with my family. Even though, technically, my family is the cause for my stress, watching the same joyful movies with them that I did as a kid always calms my panicked heart and trasnports me back to the bliss of my own childhood. I dare say those movies are magic. :)
Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, Santa Claus is Comin’ to Town, Frosty the Snowman and four more holiday classics are all available in one beautiful keepsake package: The Christmas Classics DVD Box-Set. It even comes with a bonus music CD! You can buy this wherever DVDs are sold, but it’s also available at http://www.christmasclassics.tv. I only know about it because I work with the company, but it’s something my family and I will treasure for many holiday seasons to come. I invite you to be part of the magic this holiday season, and share it with your family as well.
Happy holidays! Remember to breath. ;)
First of all: it is impossible to get through the holiday season without gaining ten pounds… if anyone has found a cure to this, please let me know!
In the chaos of Christmas, it is easy to lose sight of the “true meaning of Christmas” (a term so overused that most don’t even know what the true meaning is!)When I start to feel the consumerism of the season I step out of the situation and take a moment to go back 2000 years. I think back to Jesus’ birth and how on December 25th, HOPE was born. I love to go for a walk by the moonlight and search the sky for the Star that led the shepherds to Jesus. I dream of being put into that situation and my mind is boggled. Jesus’ birth is the most amazing story of all time.
When chaos strikes, going back to the Christmas story always helps to put my season of Joy and Merriment into perspective and I put my focus on what really matters.
Merry Christmas!