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I enjoy Christmas. All 12 days, December 25 through January 5. I even enjoy all the activities leading up to Christmas — the decorations, the cookies, the music, the movies, the cookies… yes, I have a special fondness for the cookies. Heehee.

I do not like the pressure and the stress the world tries to load on people at Christmas, though. The advertisements that begin in October. The expectation that everyone will buy, buy, buy — presents for everyone!

It makes me sad when I hear people say they dread Christmas. Or when I hear them say, on December 26, that they are glad it is “over.” The frenzy the world has made of Christmas may be over, but the miracle that is the real reason for Christmas is never over. For us Christians, that little baby in the manger is the heart of Christmas, the real meaning of this celebration, and the results of that are forever. We can rejoice over that without any of the extra stuff the world has attached to this holiday.

Why am I talking to you about Christmas now, in October? Because I am also saddened when I hear people say that they “have to” do … whatever. And if you are one of those people who feel stressed and overburdened by all you “have to” do at Christmas time, then October is a good time to stop and seriously consider how you can change that.

The first thing is to realize that you don’t “have to” do anything! Remove “have to” from your vocabulary and replace it with “want to.” Then say aloud everything you ordinarily do for Christmas, prefacing each with “I want to.” I want to select and address and mail multiple Christmas cards. I want to write a family newsletter to go in the cards. I want to spend hours decorating my house and then spend hours later taking it all down and putting it away. I want to bake dozens of cookies. I want to — well, you get the idea.

You may also come up with some “want to” things that aren’t on your list. One of mine was, “I want to spend time with my family.” That led to some changes that let me spend more evenings at home. And I never missed the things I eliminated so I could do that.

You may discover that you actually do want to do all the things on your list, that you enjoy doing them. But you may find there are some things you really don’t enjoy at all and would just as soon not do. Guess what? You don’t have to do them — you can just stop doing them! Or change the way you do them.

Some examples: Fewer decorations would be faster to put out, easier to clean around, and faster to put away later, and your house would be just as festive with five decorations as it would be with 50. People seem to enjoy the Christmas cards I send even though I stopped including a letter. December is such a busy month — I wait and send a letter in February. I’ve always found February to be sort of a gloomy month, and I suspect other people also can use a bit of cheer along about then.

I just had an interesting thought about that letter, though. What if you got your child or children to write the letter. Wouldn’t that be a refreshing change, for you and the recipients? (Yes, of course you would reserve the right to edit the letter, if it needs it, before sending it.)

Children can help with lots of things. I have fond memories of me and my brother helping my mom decorate the dozens of sugar cookies she baked every year. And later I continued that tradition with my own children. Nowadays, with my children grown and gone, I buy cookies instead of baking them. I have cut back on the amount of decorations, but I enjoy the ones I still have. But I still address and mail a lot of Christmas cards, because I like doing that. 

And maybe you are lucky enough to have a husband who is willing to help with some of your Christmas preparations. Mine was more into sitting back and enjoying the results of my labors (especially the fudge and the cookies), but I told him that if he wanted mashed potatoes for his Christmas dinner, he had to peel the potatoes. (For some reason, I really hate peeling potatoes.)

My point is, there are lots of ways to take charge of this season and eliminate the stress. Just remember that you don’t have to do any of it. There are no Christmas Police who will come arrest you if you cut back on decorations, stop sending Christmas cards, or buy cookies from a bakery instead of baking them yourself. The idea is to cut back on what gives you stress and do more of the things that give you joy.

And for us Christians, the biggest joy has to be the Good News — the birth of our Savior. I’m sure we can think of ways to celebrate his birth in ways that are more pleasing to him than what the world has come up with. And in fact, we SHOULD celebrate differently than the rest of the world. We need to let our light shine, to lead them to the real meaning of Christmas. My prayer is that you all will have a joy-filled Christmas this year!

“I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord.” (Luke 2:10-11)