Used with permission from Kathi Lipp, LLC.
I have a confession: I hate Christmas. I know, hate is a strong word. But if I could fall asleep after dinner on Thanksgiving and wake up on Jan. 1, life would be grand.
It’s not the baby in the manger or the big guy in the red suit that’s the problem. It’s everything else or, more accurately, everyone else. It’s the expectations and the obligations that clutter up the holiday season that make me want to tap out and forget it. Some years, I’ve done exactly that — hid away and waited for the whole thing to end.
Then I married a guy who loves Christmas and had two precious girls for whom I want to make Christmas magical. I’ve wanted to create holiday associations for them I have never had myself, but I didn’t know how. Enter the Clutter-Free Christmas Challenge over at the Clutter-Free Academy Facebook group. Launching tomorrow, the challenge is a 21-day step-by-step solution to enjoying the holiday season. Using Get Yourself Organized for Christmas as a guide, we’re stripping down Christmas to its barest essentials to ensure a stress-free, joy-filled holiday to remember this year. True to my “feel the fear and do it anyway” nature, I’ll be the challenge team captain and lead cheerleader.
I can’t wait to learn how a little daily preparation can have me lounging on the couch in my jammies with a mug of sugar-free cocoa on Dec. 21 instead of being Shopper No. 83 in line at Target. Won’t you join me?
Tonya Kubo is co-director of the Clutter Free Academy Facebook group, founded by author/speaker Kathi Lipp and based on her best-selling book, Clutter Free. She and her husband, Brian, are raising two spirited girls in the agricultural heart of California. By day, she cultivates community in digital spaces for a public university. At night, you can find her either cooking, cuddling or helping others to fight the demons of comparison, clutter and compulsion.