LIFE'S A PEARL

We love the holidays in our family!

But both my husband and I tend towards frugality, minimalism, and simplicity.

Things that often seem at odds with celebrating the holiday season.

Together we’ve created holiday traditions that focus on time with other loved ones, enjoying special seasonal things, and making this a time of relaxation and reflection.

We have a one year old now so embracing a simple Christmas with a child will be an evolving process. For instance I have no idea how we will tackle the Santa Claus thing and just because we tend toward minimalism doesn’t mean the grandparents do.

We’ll have to take things a step at a time year by year.

 

Our Thoughts on Gifts

We don’t usually do gifts. Gift giving is not either one of our love languages and the expectations, materialism, and expense surrounding the gift culture of Christmas is something I find incredibly stressful.

To be honest, I was brought up incredibly spoiled by Christmas and for my husband growing up the holidays were always a time of stress and financial worry. Neither is something we want to pass on.

As an alternative in past years, we’ve made homemade gifts for family and friends. There’s pleasure in the act of making as well as the act of giving. We’ve tried to focus consumable gifts like lip balms and candles or at least functional things like knit hats for the kids.

Some years there’s also been a secret santa gift exchange among the adults in the family.

I also like the idea of doing something they want, something they need, something to wear, and something to read for gifts.

This year I do have one large gift for Mr. O. I also know grandparents will be spoiling him but at least they tend to stick to a Christmas list which I fill in with needs or reads.

Like I said it will be an evolution but he is only one so we have that on our side.

 

Christmas Advent Calendars

This has become my favorite of our holiday traditions and the one big way we celebrate!

When my husband and I started dating, he wanted us to do advent calendars. We progressed from the simple chocolate countdown to me wrapping Christmas movies and books up for my mom to open all month long.

Last year my husband and I got a brewed coffee advent calendar (that honestly wasn’t that great) but the idea was really fun and experiencing that together each day was too. I found my mom an herbal tea option which she really loved.

So this year I went all in for each of us to get something we enjoy and I hope to continue that in future years! My mom got a different version of the tea calendar she loved. My husband got a different coffee calendar to use at work with their special coffee machine.

I ordered 12 winter and holiday themed board books to wrap up for Mr. O which we’ve all been having a ton of fun with!

For me, I love candles and have been eyeing some book themed ones from Frostbeard Studio. When I couldn’t find any ready to go candle advents that featured non toxic candles I purchased 12 of their small ones to try and wrapped them up individually for myself.

My original thought was to do 12 Days of Christmas for my son and I but apparently the 12 days of Christmas start at Christmas and we wanted to enjoy them before. Who knew? So he and I are opening up one gift on the even days of December and that way we get to enjoy them all month long too!

My hope is that next year I’ll have enough holiday books to wrap up 24 for him! If this is something that ever appeals to you, the library is a great resource for those on a budget or you can keep an eye out for used holiday books all year around.

 

Other Simple Holiday Traditions

• We decorate on the Friday after Thanksgiving. This is the first year we’ve had outside lights since we live in a neighborhood now. We’re planning to add one new thing a year to our collection.
• Dancing around to all the Christmas music!
• Most evenings we watch for the Christmas lights to come on. Mr. O loves to stand at the window and look out at lighted willow tree.
• We moved to an area with so much holiday spirit. There’s a huge lighted walkway through one of the parks all December long that we check out.
• Several towns in the surrounding area do this too so we’re excited to visit those as well.
• There’s a light parade here the first weekend in December. We can walk to it from our house and it was so much fun to see!
• We read a Christmas book or books with Mr. O every night.
• I have my own holiday tbr list for this season. Maybe next year I can find a holiday book my husband would be interested in.
• We spend one evening driving around looking at lights usually with a hot holiday drink. My husband likes to do this on his birthday.
• We enjoy our traditional Christmas morning breakfast and dinner!

 

Some Future Ideas:

There’s an outdoor ice skating rink in a nearby town that I think would be fun to check out for a date night or as Mr. O gets older.

The holidays can completely throw off healthy eating habits. I would like to find some fun but slightly healthier version of favorite cookie recipes to make. Or since it’s back up to 80 degrees here this week and we had to turn our AC back on ? maybe I can find some holiday themed smoothie recipes to try.

I would also like to create a tradition of giving during this time. We give when we see charities or fundraisers out and about but I’d like to be more intentional about it and include ways Mr. O can be involved too as he grows up.

 

Past Holiday Posts:

• A Personalized Advent Calendar
• 10 Favorite Christmas Movies
• A Christmas Book List
• Handmade Christmas Gift Ideas
• Holiday Diffuser Blends
• Handmade Ornaments from Old Books
• A Past December Project

---

What’s one of your favorite holiday traditions?