Inside: Here you’ll find practical ways to simplify the holidays so that you can experience a more joyful and present Christmas season.

Not surprisingly, Christmas is coming in hot and fast this year. “Blindsided” has been the theme for our 2025, so why would Christmas be any different?

With just two weeks until Christmas, it’s easy to start feeling the pressure to start squeezing every drop of magic out of this notoriously busy season. While soaking up the magic isn’t a bad thing, that pressure can cause us to impulsively overcommit in ways we promised ourselves we wouldn’t this year. If The-You-of-Christmas-Past promised yourself a simpler Christmas this year, don’t break that promise.

Christmas isn’t a season we should aim to merely survive. It’s a season to be savored. If we play our cards right, it can even replenish us and gift us more margin than it consumes. One we get to participate in rather than orchestrate entirely for everyone else.

Chaos is inevitable this time of year, but only because chaos is unavoidable any time of year. Flights get cancelled, conflicts arise, fevers spike, appointments get missed. Perhaps it feels heavier in December because we’ve set Hallmark Channel expectations when our real lives look more like MTV’s the Real World.

During the days leading up to Christmas and New Year, consider how you can create time and capacity to enjoy this busy season by simplifying and/or eliminating the things that weigh you down.

Here are a few ideas to get you started.

A Simpler Christmas Starts Here

`1. Traditions

I spent the early years of motherhood feeling more like an event coordinator than a family member. Ironically, the seasons we long to be the most present for happen to also be the busiest ones. Yet we miss out on them to ensure everyone else gets the experience they’re after.

If you’re the one in charge of “manufacturing the magic,” don’t forget to put your name on the list of people deserving of that same magic.

“But somebody has to do it.”

Do they? What if this year, you crossed a few iconic but exhausting traditions off the list? Not the ones you all love, but the ones you’re absolutely over. A tradition that drains you isn’t a tradition. It’s an obligation disguised as sentiment.

Just because it’s always been done doesn’t mean you have to keep doing it. Real life is unreliable and unpredictable. Instead of sacrificing our sanity for the sake of a facade, let’s gift each other the margin we so desperately need this year.

Ask yourself…

1. What does a magical Christmas look like to me?
2. What does a magical Christmas look like to those I celebrate Christmas with?
3. How can we ensure that everyone one wins?

For more, listen to:
The Simple + Intentional Podcast: Navigating the Holidays: How to Do Busy Well with Rachelle Crawford of Abundant Life With Less

2. Holiday Menu

It doesn’t matter how intentional we are this season if we wind up spending half of Christmas day stuck in the kitchen!

A few simplicity suggestions:

Use Paper Plates:
There are so many adorable, durable and cost-effective options out there. Use them with confidence.

Stop Overcooking Food:
I’m Lebanese, so overcooking is in my DNA. A few years ago I realized that while making an overabundance of food is a beautiful and well intended practice, it isn’t required.

My Teta may have been wired to pull it off well. I am not. We can make margin, instead of leftovers, by cooking one main dish instead of four! (I can feel my Teta’s heavenly side-eye from here. 😜)

Delegate:
If you’re hosting, don’t take on the entire menu yourself. Ask people to bring dishes they actually want to make. And if someone assigns you a dish that stresses you out, suggest an alternative that’s more within your wheelhouse… even if that ends up being the paper plates.

💡: Instead of overcooking for your own table this year, consider feeding someone else’s. If you’re intentionally cooking less this year to save time and capacity, donate groceries to your local Rescue Mission or Food Bank.

3. Gift Giving

I went minimalist almost nine years ago, and with it went the clutter and impulse shopping.

Remember, minimalism isn’t about deprivation. It’s about prioritization. This means we don’t have to eradicate gift giving altogether. It just means that we’re more intentional about the gifts we do give. We don’t let trends, obligation or marketing strategies dictate what Christmas should look like.

Instead of ensuring our tree was surrounded by gifts, we pivoted to giving experiences, consumable gifts, and gifts that would benefit our family far beyond Christmas Day.

For more, listen to:
Minimalist Moms Podcast: Mindful Gift Giving: More Joy, Less Stress.

4. Clutter

Now is not the time to tackle a major decluttering project. But between holiday decorations, deliveries, and our limited time, the clutter can start to accumulate fast.

Put holiday clutter to work for you instead of letting it consume you. Place those empty Amazon boxes in the most frequented corners of your home. As you come across clothes your kids have outgrown, toys they’re done playing with, decor you’re sick of tripping over, and dishes that don’t get used, place them in the boxes. When it’s full (enough) donate it. What feels like clutter to you may be deeply needed by someone else.

💡: Instead of adult gift exchanges, adopt a family or cover someone’s Christmas expenses. Or start a new tradition: Shop post-holiday sales for items your local Rescue Mission, Women’s Shelter or Pregnancy Service center are in need of.

Christmas and Chaos

It isn’t really fair that the seasons we long to be the most present for are the ones that demand the most from us. Without even realizing it we shift from soaking them up to simply hoping to survive them. Christmas and chaos don’t have to go hand-in-hand. We’re just in the habit of tying them together like a holiday ribbon on a frantically wrapped present. If you want greater capacity this holiday season, you’re going to have to fight to protect it.

How to Be Busy… During the Holidays

We’ve spent far too many of our busy seasons feeling blindsided by them. How To Be Busy offers a doable approach to the chaos that comes with being a person.

Time management isn’t about never being busy. It’s about being busy well. Which includes the busyness we encounter during the holiday season. There’s a lot to do, but we don’t have to lose ourselves in the process.

How To Be Busy is about having your sugar cookies and eating them too.