I wrote this post in November two years ago and after this string of thoughts and conclusion, I went on to have a beautiful holiday season. We volunteered as much as we could, set some new traditions into motion, and attended a lovely Christmas service at church.
When you’re a review blogger, Christmas often starts as early as July. Pitches have to go out, your gift guide has to be planned, and you have to start readying your holiday content like gingerbread recipes and ornament crafts. Our entire society has started functioning this way. The way I envision it started was that, like bloggers, stores received their holiday merchandise early and instead of keeping it away until then, they put it all out. We browse the stores around Halloween and we start to get giddy surrounded by Christmas trees and shiny things. On the ride home, we’ve got “It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas” playing as the trick-or-treaters are running around.
Before you know it, you’ve listened to your Christmas playlist 343,000 times and your life is like the Christmas Day marathon of A Christmas Story on TBS. (Does TBS still do this like when I was a kid?) As I was listening to “All I Want for Christmas is You” for the third time this morning, I wondered if this leads to burnout. I get such a magical feeling deep inside of me at Christmas. I smile at every passerby, I give anything I can, I feel like grabbing a stranger’s hand and dancing around with them.
The past few years, I just haven’t felt that same feeling when December 25th rolled around but this morning I wondered if I’m doing it to myself. I had originally attributed it to the fact that that year I had just had a baby so I was still in a daze. For the couple of years before that, the kids were all sick with colds which kept them up all night. Surely you can’t burn out by starting Christmas early… can you? Is there even such a thing as too much of a good thing?
A simple remedy seemed like stop engaging in the premature holiday festivities but that answer just didn’t sound fun at all. I think the better answer is to go even harder. Put all of you into making someone’s day better, their holiday season, their year. I can’t feel bad when I’m lifting someone up. Get out there and do good things. Take a child’s wish list from a donation tree. Bake someone homemade sugar cookies. Bring the children caroling at a retirement home. Volunteer to help at a soup kitchen. Any area in which you excel or even just where you’re willing, there’s something that you can do for someone else. All of that “Christmas cheer” isn’t manufactured, that comes from within. So off I go now to go head-first into bringing some joy to people. If you’re feeling glum and burnt out, you should try it too.
Have a lovely holiday season!
