How To Get Into The Christmas Spirit – 23 Budget Ways To Feel More Festive This Year
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Christmas used to be my favourite time of the year when I was a child. I remember waiting for the snow, feeling cosy during long evenings, decorating my room with multiple strings of lights…
And now? Something has changed.
While I still love Christmas, I have trouble feeling festive around that time. It might be because I know I won’t be able to spend holidays with my family as I used to do every year when I was a child. Or it’s because I’m now responsible for all the Christmas prep and focus too hard on reaching the end goal instead of enjoying the process.
I know I’m not alone.
There are many people who don’t feel festive at all, especially now, during those difficult times. It’s hard to shift focus from your worries, but creating memories is equally important. There are lots of things you can do for free or on a budget to get yourself into the Christmas spirit – here are my favourite ways to do so. I hope they’ll help you as much as they help me. Enjoy!
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How to get into the Christmas spirit – 23 budget ways to feel more festive this year
Decorate Christmas tree
Pretty obvious, isn’t it? First thing that comes to my mind when I think about Christmas is decorating the Christmas tree.
I come from a traditional family where we didn’t do that until the last week before Christmas. I’m not so patient though, so now my Christmas tree goes up at the beginning of December, if not earlier. It’s one of the best ways to feel more festive immediately.
Spend 20 minutes decorating your home
Decorating a house is a huge task. It can take hours!
I’ve been struggling to find time and energy to decorate the Christmas tree, let alone the rest of the house. It might be worth to divide your house into sections and go one by one. Just put a timer for 15-20 minutes and get to work! You can do a lot in a mere 20 minutes, and I bet that you’ll feel more festive when the timer goes off.
Also, decorated home will be a constant reminder that we’re in a festive period and it can influence how you feel about holidays.
Listen to Christmas music
It’s been proven that music has a lot of impact on people. It can influence your mood, how productive you are, and much more. That’s why I don’t think there’s anything better for getting into Christmas spirit than listening to festive music! Just put your favourite playlist in the background, while you’re going around your day, and enjoy listening to it.
Minimise your to-do list
We overwhelm ourselves with long to-do lists, especially in such busy time like the end of the year. If you stress out about every little thing, you won’t be able to enjoy holiday season at all. Cull your list to the bare minimum. Delegate whatever you can, and focus on what really matters.
Don’t be afraid to ask for help
This one goes closely with cutting down your to-do list. When you need help, don’t be afraid to ask for it. There are lots of things to do before Christmas and at the end of the year.
If you host a Christmas dinner, ask other guests to bring one dish with them. If you run your own business, ask for a day of peace and quiet so you can focus on making sure that everything will run smoothly during the holidays.
The list goes on and on; you don’t have to do everything on your own, even if that’s something you’re used to! Don’t forget to pay it forward – ask someone if they need help. You never know what someone is struggling with at the moment unless you ask.
Keep a gratitude journal
I believe everyone should keep a gratitude journal all year round. It’s a great tool helping to focus on positive aspects of your daily life, as we often forget about them.
This season, look around yourself and see what you can be grateful for. It can be anything small, like having five minutes to yourself and making a spiced hot chocolate, or bigger, like having a family to spend Christmas with, for example.
It can be difficult to find anything at the beginning, especially if you’ve never practised gratitude before, but I’m sure you can find something.
Dig deep and really feel this gratitude filling you up.
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30 Easy Journaling Ideas For Beginners (+ PDF Printable Journal Prompts!)
Check out holiday events in your town
Join local Facebook groups, find your local council’s website and see if there’s anything happening in your area this time of the year. I’m sure you can find something, even if you live in a tiny town! I would never suspect that the little town I live in could dedicate the entire day to a festive fair, parades, ended by switching on the Christmas lights.
It’s such a magical experience to gather with other people and just enjoy yourself by taking part in seasonal activities.
Read a Christmas story
I love reading. Reaching for books with Christmas elements is a no-brainer for me. I do that every time I need a little pick-me-up. There’s something magical about reading all those stories and imagining lots of snow, Christmas lights, markets, and all that jazz.
Go for an evening walk and watch out for Christmas lights
Many people decorate their homes at the beginning of December, but you might want to wait a bit longer to have the best experience possible. Walking around the neighbourhood and looking for Christmas lights can be a great activity for the entire family. My daughter’s been loving doing it since she was little.
Enjoy seasonal treats
Gingerbread, spiced hot chocolate, Christmas cake, peppermint mocha… There are a lot of seasonal treats that taste better at this time of the year. Spend some time looking for something you enjoy the most. Often you can find them ready-made, but things like spiced hot chocolate might require a bit of work. It shouldn’t take you more than 5 minutes to prepare it, though.
Build a gingerbread house
If you like doing something manually, try building a gingerbread house. I’ve never done it but it looks like such a great festive activity. There are lots of different kits to buy in almost every shop, but if you prefer to do it from scratch, here’s a recipe that looks really yummy!
Send Christmas cards
When was the last time you sent Christmas cards to your friends and family? Doing that isn’t a common occurrence anymore, unfortunately. But it can be a lot of fun! I bet your close ones will be delighted to receive a traditional, paper Christmas card instead of an e-card or simple message that is commonly being sent out by most of the people.
Head out to the shopping centre
That’s one reason I think I used to get into a festive mood so easily when I was a teenager. Going out to the malls that are decorated for holidays and Christmas music is playing from speakers all the time is bound to make you feel a bit more festive. Many people are shopping for Christmas or buying presents. Being among them might make you feel festive too, especially if you leave your negative, doubting thoughts behind you!
Get cosy with a mug of hot chocolate
I love this so much! Autumn and winter are ideal to get cosy and watch Christmas movies in the evenings. It’s the only time of the year when I renew my Netflix subscription! Add spiced hot chocolate with marshmallows and candy cane in the festive mug to the mix, put Christmas movie on the TV, and I bet you’ll start feeling Christmas spirit soon enough!
It’s a great opportunity to make the most of your Amazon Prime subscription and use them to stream Christmas movies. Here is my list of 18 best Christmas movies that are perfect for people of all ages.
Wrap presents instead of putting them in the bag
There are two types of people, those who wrap all the presents and those who just put them in the bag. And while this is much easier to do, it won’t bring much of that holiday spirit you’re looking for.
This year, try to wrap all presents individually. Get some cheap wrapping paper, ribbons, and other items you might want to use, and dedicate one evening to that. Don’t treat it as a chore, but think of the person you’re wrapping the present for. Write a simple note on the paper, draw some snowflakes, and enjoy this time.
Don’t forget to put a Christmas music or a movie in the background, too.
Fill your home with scents of Christmas
Smell can trigger a detailed memory or even intense emotion. We often associate certain scents with a specific situation or an event without realising that. I know that every time I smell oranges, my mind is filled with joyous memories of Christmas spent with my family, the scent of cookies reminds be of one of my first holidays spent with my partner, and pine takes me back in time to decorating Christmas tree.
My favourite way of filling my home with scents of Christmas is by using seasonal wax melts. I’m yet to try essential oils, as they shouldn’t be used around small children. If you don’t know where to start, pick vanilla, cinnamon, peppermint, or pine scent and go from there.
This is my all-time favourite scent. I love this candle so much!
You can also get some oranges and leave orange peels around the house. Or even better, get a real tree this year if possible!
Declutter your home
Decluttering before Christmas might be the last thing you’d want to do at this time of the year. It’s busy as it is, there’s no need to add any additional activities, isn’t it?
Hear me out, though.
Clutter has an immense impact on your wellbeing. It makes you more stressed out, nervous, and unable to focus. Let’s not forget that it takes a lot of space inside your house. Space, that could be used for a Christmas tree, for example.
There are a lot of presents that will come your way during holidays too. So let’s declutter and make sure that you’ll have a place to put them!
Don’t forget about turning on festive music in the background, of course.
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Play with a snow
If you’re lucky enough to live somewhere where it’s snowing around Christmas time, make the most out of it! Go sledding, build a snowman, have a snowball fight… Play is important and it will surely make your inner child happy. Don’t overthink it and just enjoy yourself!
Give yourself a festive mani-pedi
Treat yourself! You deserve it, really. It can be a great way of spending some time alone and doing something for yourself. If you prefer doing your nails on your own, that’s awesome. I’m jealous, though, as no matter what I do, my manicure always lasts just a couple of days.
Don’t forget to pick festive colour – red would look great on you!
Make your own ornaments
Have you ever made Christmas ornaments when you were a child? I sure did. I believe we’ve done them many times in art class at school, too. That was such a great holiday activity! Making your own hanging paper stars or paper chain can be an effective way of decorating your home on a budget too. It’s a win-win situation!
Create your own Christmas wreath
There are plenty of Christmas wreaths you can buy, sure, but you can’t customise and personalise them. There’s something special about things made by hand and it can provide lots of fun. You don’t have to spend a lot of money in order to make a wreath too – use baubles and other decorative items you already have at home.
Personalised wreath can be a nice Christmas present for your loved one, too.
Make a batch of Christmas cookies
The only time of the year when you can find me in the kitchen is December. Truly. As much as I don’t enjoy cooking and baking, I really like to prepare Christmas dishes and make some cookies. There are plenty of easy recipes on the Internet you can follow. Even if you have baked nothing so far, try it this season. It’s the thought that counts and your home will smell amazing too!
Connect with your family
I don’t want to sound hypocritical, but just do it.
Unless you really don’t want to.
That’s fine.
I spent years trying to stay in touch with my family. YEARS. They didn’t reciprocate it. So this year, I’m not going to connect with them. It’s really hard, but enjoying this Christmas with my own little family and creating new memories is more important than reaching out to someone who doesn’t really want that.
Final words
Holiday season can be difficult for many people. It gets worse when you don’t have a family to spend holidays with or you keep worrying about the rising cost of living. I really hope that my list of 23 ways of getting into Christmas spirit will help you feel more festive this year. Don’t forget to share any of your favourite ideas of making this time of the year more special.
Merry Christmas!
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