Are you trying to micromanage Christmas this year? Are you working too hard to create a picture-perfect, Hallmark movie-worthy holiday? What if you decided to do less and be more? How do you simplify Christmas?

THE STRUGGLE TO SIMPLIFY IS REAL

Braving the crowds to hunt for that “one-of-kind” gift, wrestling with wrapping paper and bows to create beautifully wrapped packages, hanging fresh mistletoe and pine boughs to fill your home with the scents of the season, or laboring over cut-out Christmas cookies with gold-flecked icing–is this how you plan to prepare your heart, mind, and soul for Christmas?

Been there, done that. Okay, if I am truly honest, still doing some of that.

Every Christmas season, I resolve to slow down, simplify, and be present.

And usually, around the first week of December, I am in a panic trying to micromanage every detail to create a picture-perfect, Hallmark movie-worthy, sweet memory-making holiday.

And the struggle is real.

There is so much to do! So much to manage. So little time. If Christmas is going to be all it should be, we must do all the things, right?

• Shopping
• Cooking
• Baking
• Entertaining
• Wrapping
• Decorating
• Hosting
• Planning
• Card Sending

Do you know that research shows that more people get down, depressed, and anxious during the Christmas season than at any other time of the year?

Why? Because we clutter our lives, hearts, and minds with soul-draining things.

SIMPLIFY CHRISTMAS BY GIVING UP MICROMANAGING

Recently, while researching for a speaking engagement I gave on preparing your heart for Christmas, I came across a weathered and wrinkled copy of an article by Laura Munson entitled “Why I am Not Micromanaging Christmas this Year.” in The Huffington Post. I laughed out loud as I reread her hilarious descriptions of Christmas. She is witty and spot-on. But as Munson bears her soul by openly sharing how dread and resentment crept into her holiday preparations, it resonated with me on a deep level. She encouraged me to rethink Christmas and my need to micromanage everything. Her call to simplicity challenged me.

In the last few years, I’ve mildly dreaded the holiday season for all its glut and Amazon boxes and blow-up Costco snowmen and braggadocio holiday cards with “perfect” families in matching white linen on a beach … only for it all to end in a hemorrhage of ribbons and bows and tape and wrapping paper, kicked into the mudroom and eventually burned. I miss the little girl in me that used to sit in her window seat and gaze at the moonlit snow — who knew a holy night when she saw one. I’ve become resentful somehow of Christmas. In other words, I’d like to punch the Kay Jeweler people in the throat. It begins with the manic Black Friday and ends in buyer’s remorse and an overheated living room full of things you thought for a few weeks you couldn’t live without and turns out … you could. For a holiday that is supposed to be about love and wonder incarnate and stopping to honor it, I’m with Charlie Brown — Christmas has gone berserk. But mostly what I’ve come to resent is the expectation...

This year I’ve decided to rethink Christmas altogether. I don’t need to bully myself into feeling “the Christmas spirit.” It doesn’t need to be a season that erases pain and promises much of anything. It can be whatever it needs to be this year. I want to go lightly and untraditionally. I want to see if Christmas comes without ribbons and bows, Grinch-style...

I’m just going to let Christmas carry me this year. Quietly. Little moments in pjs. A walk in the woods with the dogs, even if no one wants to come with me. I’m making CDs for people. That’s about it. Sorry if you’re on my list. In fact, yesterday when my son and I were making Christmas cookies, we got so giddy we started using the dough on the other side of the cookie cutters. So along with our santas and stars and gingerbread men, we made cookies that look a lot like Nantucket and Martha’s Vineyard and alligators. We almost wet our pants we were laughing so hard.

That’s what I want this Christmas to be. That’s my expectation: to expect nothing. And to trust that grace happens when we least expect it.

Laura Munson

How I long to let go of my Christmas expectations and let Christmas carry me this year. Doesn’t that sound so peaceful and inviting? Isn’t that what we truly long for during this season?

But to receive, we need to first let go.

PONDERING IS THE FIRST STEP TO SIMPLIFYING CHRISTMAS

My journey to simplifying Christmas began with the simple practice of pondering.

The dictionary definition of pondering includes these descriptions: to weigh in mind; to think about, reflect on; to think or consider especially quietly, soberly, and deeply.

• Treasure
• Keep
• Hold
• Think
• Meditate
• Remember
• Dwell
• Store

There is not much room or space to ponder in this world—especially when we give in to cultural expectations surrounding the Christmas season.

• Not much time to think or reflect.
• Not much space for silence and solitude.
• Not much permission to be present.
• Not much encouragement to simplify.

Even when there is some time, space, and permission, we are not too sure we want it. We all long for a day when we have nothing to do, nowhere to go, and nothing expected of us. If that day ever came, we would quietly sit and ponder. Or would we?

The truth is many of us are a little anxious and uncomfortable being left alone with just our thoughts. We would rather go shopping, call a friend, wrap some gifts, turn on some music, or watch some Netflix…right? That is the curse of our current culture, which focuses on doing instead of being.

It was when I began to study one of my favorite characters in the biblical Christmas story that I slowly began to put aside my “to-do” list and my distractions with performance and perfection.

For many of us, the Christmas story as told in Luke Chapter 2 is so familiar that we can recite it line by line:

• the appearances of angels
• the trip to Nazareth
• the stable with animals
• the shepherds in the field,
• the angels singing in the night sky

It is a beautiful story full of excitement, anticipation, drama, and miracles. But if we pull back just a bit and focus on Mary, the mother of Jesus, and her reaction to everything around her, we can learn valuable lessons about what it means to ponder.

Remember, this is a teenage girl, about to deliver the Son of God, who just traveled several miles on a donkey only to find she had to give birth in a manger with animals as her birthing coaches. Then, as she swaddles her precious newborn, a bunch of unfamiliar shepherds rush in, talking about angels and begging to see her baby.

And what did she do?  Luke 2:19 records her response (I have provided three different versions to get a fuller picture):

But Mary treasured up all these things, pondering them in her heart.” (ESV)

Luke 2:19 (ESV)

Mary kept all these things to herself, holding them dear, deep within herself.” 

Luke 2:19 (NLT)

But Mary kept all these things in her heart and thought about them often.” (NLT)

Luke 2:19 (MSG)

Pondering was a willful, deliberate choice on Mary’s part.

Mary was not a passive bystander but rather an active participant. And what allowed her to engage fully and intentionally was her ability and discipline to ponder.

• She was fully PRESENT.
• She was an active PARTICIPANT.
• She was intentionally PURPOSEFUL.

If want to simplify our Christmas celebrations by focusing on what is truly important, it begins with taking the time and space to ponder as Mary did.

THE SECRET TO A SIMPLE CHRISTMAS: DO LESS, BE MORE

When we focus on all the things we have to DO for Christmas, we become:

• Distracted
• Anxious
• Worried
• Upset
• Troubled
• Worked up 

This is the exact opposite of what it means to ponder and keeps us from BEING there for those who need us at Christmas.

Remember the “to-do” list of all the Christmas things? How about replacing it with the following list as you prepare your heart, mind, and soul for the season?

• Engage with those around you.
• Look people in the eyes.
• Sit and listen.
• Speak words of hope and truth.
• Give the gift of time.
• Spread the truth of Jesus.

LESS BUSY, MORE BEAUTY

LESS WORRY, MORE WONDER

LESS GETTING, MORE GIVING

LESS HUSTLE, MORE HUSH

LESS ME, MORE HIM (JESUS)

LET’S KEEP CHRISTMAS SIMPLE

I hope you can let go of the cultural expectations to embrace the true meaning of the Christmas season. Simplifying Christmas begins with pondering who Jesus is and why He came.

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