The holiday season is the most joyful time of the year, but it can also be the most stressful and overwhelming. For April Shprintz, doing a unique holiday tradition just for you can make it a little more peaceful and meaningful. She explains how doing something for yourself for the holidays – even things that others would not necessarily approve of – is one of the best ways to replenish and reenergize.
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A Holiday Tradition Just For You
Holiday Season: The Most Peaceful And Stressful Time Of The Year
I am so glad you are here. We are in the middle of it. The hustle and bustle of the holidays can be an amazing time for folks. It can also be really stressful and unfun. I am here to help you make it as fun, relaxing, and peaceful as possible. Here is what you have to do to make the holidays work for you. You need to come up with a holiday tradition or some holiday traditions, if you want more than that, that are just for you. Some people would say, “It is the season of giving, and that is selfish.”
Some Of April’s Off-The-Wall Holiday Traditions
It is self-centered in a good way because when you empower yourself, you can do everything for everyone else. I want you to find those holiday traditions, not those that were passed down from your parents, not those that your friends do, not those that you saw on Instagram. I want you to find the holiday traditions that resonate with you and allow you to carve out a little space for yourself to really enjoy this time in a way that matters to you. I am going to share some of my holiday traditions with you that I do that are wacky and off the wall.
My thought here in sharing these wacky and off-the-wall things is to let you know that they do not have to be things that others would necessarily approve of. In the US, Thanksgiving has already passed. One of the things that I do for Thanksgiving is a Friendsgiving. I do not see my family on Thanksgiving. I get all the family I have chosen in my friends. Sometimes it is just one person, sometimes it is several people. We all get together. We tend to wear pajamas all day.
When you power yourself, you can do everything for everyone else. Share on XI have it catered. Order all the food in. It sounds bougie when I say catered. I mean, Cracker Barrel. We get all the food from there and get a ham from Costco. We all get together. We spent the whole day. We just have a shit ton of fun. That is one of my holiday traditions. Another one, when it comes to Christmas, is that I am more about experiences than gifts.
What I love doing with my closest people is letting us not get each other gifts, but letting us plan experiences together. They do not have to be in December. They can be whenever. It will give us something to look forward to. We do not necessarily have to have the additional stress of getting gifts for each other. That is one of the traditions as well. One thing that I do for myself, by myself, that I absolutely love is that I spend a lot of time, thought, and effort on getting gifts for the people who make my life easier all year round.
Anyone in my life who is what we would consider a service person, and they are providing a service that makes my life easier. The gate guards in my community, the woman who helps me with my house and cleans, the people who do my hair, do my nails, and ship my packages. All of these different folks. The trash collectors, the postman, all of these folks are very important to me. They make my life so much easier.
Feeling good is not selfish. It is a way to replenish yourself for the holiday season so you can share so much of yourself with other people. Share on XI have got to say the groomers too. Take care, cowboy. Every year, I come up with some gift that I want to do for them, make for them, create for them. I also make sure there are things that they would actually enjoy. Do not worry, I am not crocheting socks or whatever. Not that that is not a great gift, but we are in Florida. I spend so much time curating something amazing for them that will show them how special they are to me.
Why Feeling Good Is Not Selfish
For me, that is so life-giving. It is so fun. It is the opposite of stressful. I would not let a holiday go by without doing that. It would not have to be something that does something for someone else. That happens to be my thing. Maybe the thing that you want to do every holiday is take a day and go shopping just for yourself. Maybe you want to go to a movie all alone. Maybe you want to go do a spa day. It is all by yourself just to rejuvenate yourself.
I am telling you, no matter what feels good to you, feeling good to you is not selfish. It is actually a way to replenish yourself for the holiday season and allow you to share so much more of yourself with other people. This year, I need you to come up with a holiday tradition that is just for you, that feeds your soul and makes you so happy and excited about this time of year, when lots of people can get overwhelmed and frazzled and just not have a good time. What I want for you is the best holiday season ever. Here’s to your success.
