You’ve seen the decorations appearing and heard the music starting to play… Christmas is just around the corner! 

How does it make you feel? Excited? Overwhelmed? Already behind on planning?

For most of us, this season is truly a mix of the wonderful and the stressful. And when we think back, we can recall Christmas memories that were incredibly precious, magical moments, as well as ones that… well… we’d rather not relive.

Maybe you’ve had years where you’ve come to the end of the Christmas season and felt a little too stretched – financially, emotionally or physically. Maybe sometimes your Christmas season has felt like it was mostly shaped by all the invitations and expectations of those around you, rather than by what is truly most important to you and your loved ones. Or maybe you just want to intentionally design moments this Christmas for those around you that reflect your values and priorities. 

If any of that resonates for you – I have a special early-Christmas-present for you!

The ‘Crafting a Deliberate Christmas’ planner can be downloaded for free here!

The planner will help you:

1 – Think through what you DO and DON’T want in the way you design your Christmas

When you look back on the best and worst memories of Christmases past, what can you learn? What do you want to intentionally design into your 2019 Christmas as a result? What do you want to avoid repeating?

2 – Uncover and articulate your Christmas Values

Christmas means many things to many people. What Christmas values are closest to your heart? Is it gratitude? Spontaneity? Hospitality? Stillness? What is most important to you and your loved ones, and how can identifying those values shape the way your Christmas plans come together?

3 – Plan how you will make decisions that honour what matters most to you in the big areas like relationships, finances and time

Christmas tends to create particular demands, but also unique opportunities, in a few key areas. Just like with goal-setting, thinking through what outcomes you want before you hit peak Christmas whirlwind season is the best way to set yourself and your loved ones up for a Christmas that reflects what is most important to you.

4 – Consider how you can celebrate with kindness this Christmas season

Some of you might have been a part of ‘Random Acts of Christmas’, an initiative I ran for five years up to 2016 that got picked up by people around the world. The concept is simple – it’s not about complicated; it’s about community. The planner gives you the space to think through what it would look like to create an advent planner of random acts of kindness in the 12 days leading up to Christmas. It can be anything – a handwritten card of encouragement, a little gift for your uber driver, paying for the coffee of the person behind you. Let your creativity go wild, and you’ll find that even a few little acts over the Christmas season is, in the words of B.C. Forbes, ‘a tonic for our souls’.

As it does every year, Christmas will come, it will happen, and it will pass. Will it unfold around you by default, or will you choose to shape it deliberately, in a way that honours what matters to you most? 

So go ahead! Grab your free copy of the ‘Crafting a Deliberate Christmas’ planner here!