I am not freaking out or overwhelmed this holiday season. You know why? Because I care about what’s important to OUR family—and that my friends, includes building memories, not doing all of the things Instagram says I should.
Because I am certain that if I tried to achieve the picture-perfect holiday season, my Grinchy heart would only shrivel, instead of swell.
It’s no news that Christmastime looks more magical since the days we were kids.
Social media makes it easy for people to post beautiful, impeccable photos of this magical season. But what is truly magical are the memories being made, not all of the surface stuff—which is why my heart is still growing bigger despite the fact that I am NOT doing all of the picture-perfect stuff.
For us, we’re an Elf on the Shelf type of family (our elf is straight-up all kinds of bad and I love it), not a Christmas card family.
This will be the second year in a row I’m not sending cards and it is soooo damn freeing. You know the best part? Each day we receive three or more Christmas cards in the mail, I feel ZERO guilt about it.
Spending the time and money to create the perfect photo and send it in the mail is just not worth it to me anymore—sorry friends and fam, it just isn’t happening. Instead, I take a crazy picture of my two kids in their matching holiday jammies and blast it on Facebook saying, “Here’s your annual Christmas card! Hope it’ll do!”
And people do not give a shit.
We also never do holiday family photos.
Again, taking the time and money to make my kids wear fancy outfits they’ll only wear once is just not worth it to us. If this is your jam, more power to you—it just isn’t.
We also put up a fake Christmas tree. And this year I actually just let my kids have a heyday decorating it. It looks a little bit like a bunch of tiny drunk elves invaded our home and decorated it. Let’s just say it’s heavy on the bottom.
But the best part is that I didn’t have to spend time wanting my damn tree to be perfect—because now, my kids will have this wonderful memory instead.
My family is also not doing all of the things this year.
We’re skipping on the light show, the tree lighting, the holiday show, and more. But instead, I’m trying to institute more time together.
We’re going to take a stab at baking a bunch of holiday goodies for those we love. Granted, they will come from a box, but my family will all be together and the kids will love decorating our cookies and brownies with red sprinklers and thick icing. The time spent together making a mess and very mediocre baked goods will last forever in our minds.
What they say is true, something happens the older you get. You give so many less fucks that you just stop counting.
It’s freeing, really. You simply start doing what you want to do and when you want to do it—especially over the holidays.
This year, I’m having the freaking time of my life because I’m setting the bar low—real low.
My house is very imperfect, maybe even laughable to some, but to our family it feels just right.
No, my kids won’t have Christmas cards where they’re dressed in flannel to look back on, but they will have zany photos of themselves in their Christmas jammies sticking their tongues out, giving their mom a hard time.
I look forward to this magical season, and not dread it, because the true magic comes when you simply do what you want to do and not what Instagram says you should. And like the Grinch, my heart will grow, because of the people I share the season with.