Recentering My Christmas Priorities on Christ

It has been way too long since I’ve blogged. Life has gotten busy and this space has been put on the back burner. It’s not that I haven’t wanted to write, it’s not that I don’t have any content ideas, it’s just hard to make the time to sit down and do it. And the longer I put it off, the easier it is to put it off more. Other things have become more important. I used to say this blog was my baby, but now that I have a human baby (who is actually now a full-on toddler!), this blog is much less of a priority than it used to be. But I’m hoping to get back into the swing of things soon.

The reason I’m writing today is because I’ve got some things on my heart. This morning, I went to my Mom2Mom gathering at church. It’s a ministry aimed toward mothers of all ages, and it is such an encouragement to me. Today, as we approach Christmas, the lesson was all about families and holidays and the stresses that come with it. We were encouraged in so many areas regarding these topics, but the main lesson was about making our Christmas season about Jesus.

I learned that we all need to be flexible. We often get caught up in our traditions and the way things “should be” or “have always been” and we want them to stay the same. We get upset when things don’t go the way we expect them to. But instead, we need to keep our expectations in check and be flexible with ourselves and others. We have to ask ourselves what our Christmas priorities are.

I don’t know what your family is like. But my family is pretty darn awesome. Travis and I are so blessed to each have families that we love and are close to. We know that’s not usually the norm anymore.

But there’s one problem to that. We want to be with both of our families as much as possible during the holidays. But they live three hours apart. This means we have to split our time between the two.

Together, we have a total of eight Christmas gatherings with families. Eight different events we are supposed to be at. Guys, it’s just impossible for us to get to be at every single one. (Especially when it involves so much traveling) We do our best every year to make it to as many as possible, because we truly want to be at each one.

Having a child has made this even more stressful and difficult, and I know that as we add children to our family it will just get worse. Driving three hours there and back several times and trying to get to all the different events and buy all the presents for all the people and not miss out on anything while packing all our stuff and making sure Raylee has all the things she needs has become overwhelming.

Last year, Raylee was sick during Christmas and none of us were getting any sleep, so that was added onto it all. I remember being so thankful that Christmas was over. And I think that’s sad. When someone asked me how my Christmas was, my answer was “stressful.” It just got to be too much. My Christmas priorities had gotten all jumbled up. And I don’t want that to be my Christmas. I don’t want to dread the traveling or the zillions of get togethers. I don’t want to be stressed and overwhelmed.

That is not what Christmas is about. I want to be able to focus on Christ. On celebrating His birth. On spending quality time with the ones I love, even if it’s just for a couple hours instead of a full week. I want to enjoy giving, not just marking another gift off my list of things to get. Christmas has became too much. And it’s time for me and our family to step back and focus on the important things. We want less chaos and more Jesus.

I encourage you to step back and look at your Christmas plans this year. What’s the focus? What’s your goal? If your goal is just to survive and get through it, or if your focus is getting all the things done that are on your list, maybe it’s time to rethink this season.

Maybe you, like me, need to check your expectations. Maybe you need to be more flexible, more grateful. I don’t know what that will look like for you. But I’m hoping as we head into December, I can remember these things.

I’m hoping I can put my focus on Christ, that I can begin to recenter my Christmas priorities and turn that into a habit every year. I don’t want my daughter to grow up seeing me stressed out over what should be a season full of joy. I want her to grow up seeing me worshipping and giving with a heart of peace and joy.

What are your Christmas priorities? Is Christmas more stressful than joyful for you? What can you do to change that?

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