Happy Holidays! 5 Ways to Make the Holidays as Awesome as Thanksgiving.

Merry Christmahanuwanza!  As pumpkin spice is not-so-subtly shoved aside for peppermint everything, I wanted to be sure to gift you with a holiday post.  Our family celebrates Christmas, and honors all other holidays, and I have to tell you that as hard as I try, I hate Christmas.

There.  I said it.

I love aspects of  it; decorating the tree, and now that Ella is 2, stuff like Elf on the Shelf is a hilarious challenge and tons of fun.  My wife & I make an epic amount of Christmas cookies to take to all of our neighbors.  That part is awesome.

But the rest of it – the “hustle and bustle” (aka the shit storm of chaos) is for the birds! It’s stressful, expensive, unnecessarily complicated and it makes me miss the simplicity of Thanksgiving.  I wish we could combine the two seasons;  Just a turkey, family, friends, a tree, an elf and some alcohol.  So delicious and simple. 

There are awesome ways to simplify, but they require discipline..

1. You can give handmade gifts, like photo ornaments — so let’s hope everyone you give a gift to wants a photo of your child on their tree or in their home at all.
2. Bake cookies and give those as gifts — as long as you aren’t a mediocre baker that will be amazing amidst the 300 lbs of junk food already trickling into to every home in the name of festivities.
3. Call your family and tell them  that you aren’t giving gifts this year — and find that one relative who starts a rumor that you’re having money problems (there’s always one).
4. Make it about the kids — I have nothing snarky to say about this.  I love this idea best of all.
5. Keep it light and fun! — Seriously.  As soon as we took this approach, the holiday became about our little family, friends, food and fun, and I stopped being stressed.  We spend time with the people we love and eat and drink to our hearts content.. just like Thanksgiving.