The Christmas chill is fast approaching, the most wonderful time of the year for many, filled with sheer joy, where you are surrounded by love and cared for by the most wonderful people.
We all look forward to the holiday season. I mean who doesn’t await the joyful change in atmosphere, the glory of the Christmas pudding, the decorations, unraveling of the ribbons wrapped around gifts, and adorning the Christmas tree with light and happiness sprinkled around the season.
Way back in Africa, Christmas is a time where lots of family members come together, travel from the city down to the village to set up a big party with the older relatives.
Radio stations and shop vendors play carols all through the period jingling in all the area. Fireworks as we locally call them (knockouts) are distributed to the children, during the festive season of joy and celebration.
Whether you are at home, across the ocean, or far away from home you’ll always look forward to having an awesome Christmas holiday or ways to make each Christmas your best ever and in other to achieve this, certain things must be done.
Christmas is always a time of joy, a time to merry and be happy, a time to be aplomb and gay.
Christmas is basically happiness unrestricted and unlimited by boundaries. It is a time where love is shared between family, friends and even strangers. It is a time of smiles and laughter, of hugs and kisses; a time when beautiful memories are created.
My zest for festive seasons is usually on a higher level during Christmas, I love the fact that I get to share beautiful moments with my family and friends. I prepare for Christmas months ahead so I take certain steps to ensure that I have the best fun.
I will be sharing some engaging activities and ideas that can help spice your holiday season.
Grab a bar of chocolate and enjoy this beautiful ride…
1. Adopt A Positive And Optimistic Attitude
The first and very important step to take is to adopt a positive mindset and an optimistic attitude. Most times, it is easy to get worried and anxious about what the holiday might bring or turn out to be; are we giving out the right gifts? Is the Christmas recipe going to turn out well? Is the Christmas tree large and beautiful enough? We let ourselves think so much that it affects and dampens our mood for the holiday which is the wrong way to get into the holiday mode.
Ensure to be happy this Christmas and do the best to have a positive attitude towards the celebration. This way, even when things go wrong and not the way you planned, your demeanor will not change and you remain bright and happy against the snippets of darkness that might try to cloud the holiday season.
2. Design A Christmas Tree With Family, Friends And Loved Ones
One of the interesting things you can do to make Christmas a ‘time’ and season to remember is to participate or partake in activities with family and friends.
You might have spent the whole year pursuing the necessities of life and not have spent ample time with family and doing the things you love or that make you happy. What better time to enjoy the company of warmth and love from family, friends and loved ones than the Christmas season?
My family makes it a sort of ritual to decorate a Christmas tree every Christmas. We come from different parts of the globe where we might have been taught to design and decorate a Christmas tree amidst laughter and hugs; it is one way we get to spend time with one another and it is something you can try this year.
Make out time to go buy a Christmas tree with your loved ones and then decorate it with everyone participating actively and putting up the things they love.
3. Try A New Christmas Recipe
Rather than cooking the same old recipe every Christmas, why not try out something new and different? Get an old recipe from Granny and whip up a befitting Christmas lunch or dinner for everyone.
The recipe might not turn out as perfect or gracious as you envisaged but it will create a sense of shared feeling and communicate to all and sundry how you are willing to go the extra mile for the certainty of their happiness.
If possible, let someone record with a camcorder while you perform the cooking magic in the kitchen, this way everyone feels part of the process and the video can be viewed later for memory or reminiscence purpose.
I vividly recall one Christmas, my family decided that everyone would eat what they felt like or wanted to, as long as it was homemade and didn’t take long to prepare. It was a daunting task of frying, baking, grilling and steaming but it was a beautiful moment and memory our family is not likely to forget in a hurry and that is the essence of Christmas: creating and making beautiful memories!
4. Volunteer With Family And Make Out Time For It
Most of the time or during the year when posed with the question of volunteering or an opportunity to do so comes our way, it is easy to say we are tired, too busy, there isn’t enough time or responses around this line.
The Christmas holiday, however, gives the opportunity to volunteer our time, our help to assist others and ensure they also have a fantastic holiday season.
Christmas is a time for family; a time when family ties are tightened and bonds are strengthened. Christmas is a season when everyone becomes a child and simple actions can mean a lot.
Volunteering as a family during Christmas shows you that the world is not as easy as it seems and some struggle to get by every day; those who are at the lower rung of the ladder, those who a meal a day means a lot.
And when we become exposed to these challenges and sufferings of everyday people like us, we tend to appreciate life and the gift of a family more and is there a more perfect season to feel grateful for the gift of a family than the Christmas holiday season.
Volunteering could be simple acts such as taking care of the elderly, sharing or serving gifts baskets out, making out time to give gifts to those in rehabilitation homes.
5. Do Away With Material Gifts Or Give Less Of It
During the Yuletide season, we tend to give gifts wrapped in colorful packages and packets scattered around the Christmas tree. One interesting way to make this Christmas more fun is to do away with such material gifts or give less of it.
While these gifts are good or important, they might not have a long-term effect on the recipient. Someone given a watch might value and treasure it as long as it continues to work without any hitch up.
The day the watch spoils and such an individual has to part away with it, the measure of happiness he has placed on the watch begins to dissipate and he begins to seek or try something else that can keep or give him the same measure of happiness.
Christmas memories are beautiful and if you celebrate your Christmas with a ‘coverage’ of pleasure, the memories will definitely be imprinted in your mental register.
So, this Christmas, rather than giving material or commercial gifts, give gifts that draw and bring the family together. For example, you could go bowling, or skiing or mountain diving or engage in any extreme sports; skydiving, parachuting, etc.
These are worthy gifts of a family moment that when asked to recount how the holiday was spent, the individual is likely to light up with joy and happiness in explaining how fun and memorable the holiday went.
So, this Christmas, while thinking about gifts to give family members, try to give less material gifts and give a gift of togetherness and memories.
6. Be Thankful During The Christmas Season
Due to the beehive of activities that permeate the Yuletide season, it is easy to get lost in this plethora of activities and forget the true essence of the season which is sharing and spending quality time with your family and being thankful about the simple things.
We want everything to be perfect or just in the right shape that if they do not pan out the way we’ve planned, we become grumpy and sad, bitter and angry. Christmas is not a time to have such feelings of anger, hate, resentment, and negativity. We should be happy and thankful that we have the opportunity to spend Christmas and others out there are enjoying the Christmas spirit.
We should also be grateful for the little efforts people make to wish us a merry and beautiful Christmas. From those who send cards, either handwritten or store-bought, to those who leave messages on our answering machines, or call us, or travel down to be with us this season.
To those who give us gifts, or place soft, petting kisses on our forehead, or fill our space with their cooing laughter, even to those strangers who pass us on the street, the sidewalks and smile widely, telling and wishing us a happy Christmas, not to forget the sales clerk who tell us the best gifts or cards to buy. We should be grateful for the beauty of Christmas and the beautiful memories it affords.
7. Find Out And Learn Your Family History
Again, because the season allows us the opportunity to be together and share joy and happiness, it also allows us a good time to learn together and gain knowledge.
One way to make the season more interesting is to decide to learn your family history together. Decide to get all the history books, browse through archives, visit museums and bibliography centers to garner any knowledge about your family.
The fun in such an expedition lies not in what you might find about your family’s history but rather what you’ll discover about your present family.
You might discover a trait or skill you might not have noticed earlier in a family member. One might be good at learning and keeping details to memory, another might be very observant and perfect with recalling dates, time, events and sequence.
Moreover, the ample and quality time you get to spend with family never proves a disaster or comes out wrong. So, one kills two birds with a single shot: you learn and gather historical and present, facts-based knowledge about your family while still getting to be with them and having a nice time.
8. Give Out Handmade Gifts
Handmade gifts tell their recipients that you -the giver- mean more to them than any item that could have been picked off the shelf, wrapped beautifully and given to them. Handmade gifts have a sense of human touch. It communicates to the receiver how important they are in your life and how you want them to have something of yours, something of particular importance to you.
Handmade gifts are unique because while they might take time to make, they help us to reflect about the person we are making them for and ask if such an individual is truly deserving of our time and effort; the one we are spending and utilizing to make him or her such a gift.
Handmade gifts carry a special sense of belonging, of love, of togetherness and can elicit serious emotional display from the recipient.
One time, my Mom decided to gift every one of us handmade gifts for the Christmas holiday. I got a pendant with a love shape at the end of it. I still wear it, almost every day because each time I feel far from home, I remember the pendant and it makes me feel at peace with myself and remember happy family memories which put me in the right shape. Such is the power of handmade gifts, especially when given at such a time like Christmas.
9. Go Christmas Carol Singing With Family
Why not go carol singing with family? It is a good way to blend and bond and while the singing might be terrible, the memory of being together makes up for all the wrong of the day or night as the case might be.
The goal here is to have as much fun and possible, so care ‘less’ about whether the voices are in sync. Just sing lustily and have a beautiful, joyous moment with your loved ones.
10. Don’t Be Too Expectant Of Perfection
We are humans and things might sometimes not go our way. One way to ruin the Christmas holiday is to try to make it too perfect, to want everything to be in order. While this is good, it can be better to make some plans and just flow with the moment and see how golden it can be.
The Christmas dinner might turn out too salty, rather than throwing out the meal, why not just let everyone have a taste of it and laugh about it? You might be surprised that people do not even care about the saltiness and might joyfully eat it all the same.
The goal is to make Christmas a memorable time. Do have fun as much as possible. Merry Christmas in advance!
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