Slow Motherhood Challenge: A Moment Between Holidays

This post is part of my Slow Motherhood Challenge series.

To take a moment between Thanksgiving and Christmas, give yourself a few quiet days before the next holiday starts. Wait to decorate, skip the Black Friday scroll, settle back into your normal routine, and let a few ordinary days refill you before the Christmas hustle begins.

Thanksgiving is such a whirlwind. Travel and cooking, friends and family, all in a blur. Then just as suddenly, it’s over.

We wake up the day after Thanksgiving with an expectation to shop. To start knocking gifts off the holiday list. To fight crowds and make sure we get the best deals. It’s exhausting.

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Tonight, we went to a little get together. The kids ran around inside, getting as much energy out as possible on a cold, rainy night, and staying up way too late. We feasted on leftovers at a not-quite-cleared table with old friends, family, and neighbors.

On our way home, my little one noticed all of the Christmas lights. “Look mama! It’s Christmas!” he shouted, over and over. He thinks Christmas is less a time of year and more a decorating style. We started talking about how maybe it could be Christmas at our house. He requested “crystals from the whistals (?)” and “Santa on a big, huge snow platform.” Clearly, he has a different idea than I do about minimal decorations!

As excited as my little one is, it won’t be Christmas at our house yet, at least not for a few weeks.

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We tend to rush from Thanksgiving chaos straight into Christmas chaos, without a moment to come up for air. We leave my family’s home in Northern California tomorrow, and by Friday, we have a holiday party. And the holiday craziness begins.

Why Does Christmas Start So Early?

The shopping calendar! By September, the stores are already pushing us toward Christmas. Lights are up before the leftovers are gone and our to-do list grows before we’ve had a chance to rest. Without a pause, we skip right over the in-between, and the in-between is where we catch our breath.

Why Take a Moment Between Holidays?

Because the pause lets us wind down, for ourselves and for our kids, and enjoy the uneventful moments that fill our lives.

I’ll try to take a breath before Christmas and let everything settle a little.

I will try to give us a little peace.

This blog is as much a self pep talk as anything else. Even as I write this, I’m fighting the urge to talk to my husband about a day to pick up the tree, and I’m resisting the talk of decorating just for a few days. Slowing down takes practice, and I’m still practicing.

How Do You Take a Moment Between Holidays?

Wait a few weeks to decorate, skip the Black Friday scroll, and keep your days simple and uneventful for a while. A few ordinary days between holidays let everyone settle before the next round of plans.

Here’s how I’ll try to find time to wind down between the holidays:

• Close the sale tabs. I will stop looking up Black Friday deals and skip the promotional emails.
• Let the days be ordinary. Settle back into our normal routine and soak up at least a few beautifully boring days.
• Take a breath before Christmas and let everything settle before we start filling up our calendar with holiday gatherings and the expectations that come with them.

My little one was right. Christmas is coming. I’m just going to let it wait a few days.

If you’d like a little help slowing down, I’d love to have you join me for the free 5-Day Slow Motherhood Challenge: five small practices, one a day, delivered to your inbox.

What do you do to take a breath between holidays? Tell me in the comments.