The holidays are coming. The hustle and bustle are here. We are making Christmas lists, Thanksgiving meal plans, booking flights back home, and it all just feels so….busy.
I want to ask you…what are you craving this holiday season? Really. Take a few minutes to ask yourself this question. What comes to your mind?
What does your soul say?
Mine says LESS.
I am craving LESS:
distraction
stimuli
stuff
opinions
expectations
screens
& more:
Jesus
quality time
rest
love
joy
What about you? What does your soul need more of this Christmas? What does your soul need less of this Christmas?
After determining what our soul is saying, how can we be intentional to cultivate for ourselves and for others that which is most important during this season?
Instead of letting the busyness set us on Christmas stress autopilot, how do we cultivate a Christmas around the things that matter most to our souls?
Here are a few ideas that we are trying this season in order to intentionally place Christ first in our celebrating and our gift giving. I would love to hear from you as well what you are doing to make this holiday season more intentional and thoughtful.
- First, my husband and I aim to have Christmas shopping for family done by the start of Advent on Dec 3rd.
- Through our gifts (that we give and receive) as much as possible we want the focus to be on Christ and the world and not on us.
- We are keeping Christmas decorations to a minimum.
- Throughout Advent, we will practice daily devotionals, light a candle, and daily refocus on treasuring Christ more than anything else in this holiday season.
- We will open our arms wider in hospitality to the stranger, the poor, and the foreigner. We will pray throughout advent to see and take these opportunities.
- My time on this blog and on social media will be minimal.
These are the things that work for us to make Christmas more about Christ. What about you? What works for you?
We want to have Christmas shopping done before advent, so we can focus less on stuff, money, and gifts under the tree and more on Christ during the focused time of Dec 3rd through Christmas.
If you are not familiar with Advent, you may ask, what is advent and why practice it? Advent is a time of preparation. It is a time of preparing our hearts for and anticipation toward the birth of Christ. For advent, Heath and I will be following along with The Advent Project from Biola University’s Center for Christianity, culture and the arts.
She Reads Truth has an Advent devotional study that many of my friends have used and recommend. I have been meaning to try the She Reads Truth advent studies but I just keep coming back to Biola’s advent study year after year. Biola combines scripture, a devotional, music, and art to provide a beautiful and unique advent experience.
I hope to purchase or make an advent wreath and candles. If I don’t get around to making one, a simple candle will do. We will light a candle nightly (or whenever we have a chance to sit down together) and read through the advent devotional for the day. I really love the Voskamp’s Cradle to Cross wreath as well- I think this would be a beautifully meaningful way to celebrate the season.
Bonus: Check out Tsh Oxenreider’s Simple Advent guide and her Simple Advent playlist on Spotify. We will be listening to this playlist throughout the season to help set our minds on Christ.
This year, to better focus on loving our family, the world, and Christ through the physical gifts that we give, we will choose to give more intentional gifts and less last minute ones.
As much as possible, we will give gifts to our family that encourage time together, quality time with Christ, or are from companies who support the vulnerable, the stranger, the poor, and the foreigner.
Intentional gift examples
For quality time together:
A gift card to a couple’s favorite restaurant
A gift card to a favorite bed and breakfast or
an Airbnb gift card
For quality time with Christ:
A prayer journal like this one from Val Marie Paper (or this yearly one VMP as well)
Bible studies like these from She Reads Truth (they also have He Reads Truth studies)
For Gifts that Give back:
Preemptive Love Coalition Shop has candles, soaps, baby sweaters, sweatshirts, and dolls that are made by refugees. Purchasing these gifts helps to support refugee families in a desperate situation.
JOYN – Handmade, fair trade, designer gift bags
Thistle Farms soaps and candles
ABLE (formerly FashionABLE) leather, jewelry, denim, apparel, shoes
Sseko Designs Leather jewelry, shoes, apparel, and now some MEN’S products
Mata Traders – gorgeous dresses!
Nativity set to fund teachers in Myanmar
Pajama/ lounge pants from Sudara – I LOVE these pants, wear them every night and gave them to all my bridesmaids <3
Bonus: Check out these gift guides:
Bailey T. Hurley’s Holiday Gifts that “Give Back” Guide 2017
2017 Holiday Gift Guide from Fair Trade Friday
Lastly, I will spend less time on social media and this blog and more time face to face with my family, friends, the stranger, the poor, and the foreigner in my community.
My social media account and blog will be one less picture + words on the screen for you to look at, one less opinion for you to hear, one less notification or post for you to scroll through, one less recipe, Christmas decoration or activity for you to look at on your phone.
My hope is that you will find
more quiet and less hustle this season
more focus on what matters and less distraction on what doesn’t
more of Christ’s voice and less of the world’s voice
I want to know, what do you want more of this Christmas? What do you want less of? What are your ideas, strategies, and resources for having a more intentional Christmas?
Are you giving any gifts this Christmas that give back?
What ideas do you have about loving the stranger, the poor, the lonely, and the foreigner during this season?
