Here Are Nifty Ways To Get Into The Christmas Spirit

If you’re a young adult, the events of the past year and some change may have officially taken their toll on you; leaving you feeling too overwhelmed and too exhausted (and if we’re going to be honest, maybe even a little bit skittish) to get into the holiday, specifically Christmas, spirit. 

You want to but your heart just isn’t feeling it. You feel like you’re missing out even though you’re sticking to the same holiday routine. You’re still chasing that high of being a kid again on Christmas morning.

Every year, you feel the lyrics, “Where are you Christmas? Why can’t I find you?”, that much harder.

As a soon to be 29-year-old, I am precisely all of that. And I don’t want to be like that. So I have come up with a way some magic back into my Christmas season and rejuvenate my Christmas Spirit.

Think of the holiday season like being a snow globe, you have to shake it up to see and enjoy all of the sparkle. 

These are some nifty ways I have come up with to bring back the sparkly in your Christmas spirit.

First things first: Mix up your holiday routine!

This is the first step in the rut a lot of us find ourselves in during the holidays. 

We get stuck in the same routine that we’ve probably done for most of our adult lives. Specific routines breeds monotony if you enact them the same way year after year. Be the snow globe and shake things up a bit with your routine!

Changes it your routine can be as drastic or as subtle as you want them to be. 

Why not try a new recipe of your favorite Christmas dish. Decorate your home in a different way for the holidays. Do something nice for a random stranger. To me, nothing few things ignite the spark of Christmas joy than by making someone smile.

Start a new Christmas tradition by doing something different every year

You say you’re going to do something different every year during the Christmas season; why not make this year that year!

What I like to do if I want to do or try something different, but don’t know where to begin, is that I look up to see what “National Day” it is that day.

nationaltoday.com is tells you what today’s national day is. For instance, as I am writing this on December 15, 2021, it is National Cupcake Day, Bill of Rights Day, International Tea Day, Lemon Cupcake Day, National Cat Herder’s Day, and National Wear Your Pearls Day.

I am so down for Lemon Cupcake Day and National Wear Your Pearls Day today!

You could create a tradition for yourself or your family to celebrate a National Day every day during the holidays or anywhere in between. If you or your family particularly like a National Day during the holidays, make that day stick around as an annual tradition.

This is just one example of creating new Christmas traditions to try out every year. The main thing is make a tradition out of trying something new every year!

Explore things you already love to do, and do them in a different way

For example, if like to bake Christmas cookies, enter into a baking class class to not only up your baking skills, but also add fun memories and experiences during the Christmas season that you can go onto share.

If you have never been to a dinner and show before, use the holiday season as an excuse to go see one of your favorite holiday classics as a live dinner and show performance, or even as show on Broadway.

Located in Jacksonville, Florida, Alhambra Theatre & Dining is one such establishment that performs classic movies as live dinner theater. I have personally seen their show based on the Christmas classic “A Christmas Story” and both the performance and the food where delightful and entertaining.

If you can, JET SET!

We have all thought about. If you don’t have many family obligations during the Christmas season, why not make plans to take a little vacation to somewhere you’ve always wanted to go during the holidays. 

It is on my bucket list to go back to New York City at Christmas and do some serious fine dining!

Life is too short not to enjoy the holidays anyway and anywhere you can.

Discover holiday traditions of your ancestral culture

If you are someone like me who loves digging into your ancestral roots and discovering new things, there are few better times to do so than during the holidays, in my humble opinion.

I have DNA results to prove that the overwhelming vast majority of my DNA originates from Western and Southern Europe. What I have come to do is researching Christmas traditions of my genetic heritage in those regions of the world.

For instance, according to my Ancestry DNA report, I am 14% Scottish, 7% Swedish and Danish, and 6% Welsh. Whereas my 23&Me report says I am 3% French, German, and Swiss, and 1.5% Italian. What I like to do for my Christmas traditions is take a bit of each Christmas tradition, for the Swedish and Danish side Yule, from each of those cultures and make a holiday hodgepodge of blended culture in my home and share with my extended family.

If you don’t know your genetic origins, 23&Me and Ancestry DNA are having holidays sales going on right now!

Create a personal Advent Calendar

Here me out. 

You know the gist of advent calendars. I’m sure you’ve seen tons of DIY advent calendars that require crafting. You make your own personal advent calendar using crafts if you want to, but it’s not absolutely necessary. You can apply as many crafts as you want when making your own advent calendar.

To make your own advent calendar as random as a bought advent calendar, my suggestion is to get at least 24 of your favorite candies or other treat (which can be anything you fancy). Next write 24 good things could do for yourself or others on pieces of paper. This is where you may use crafts if you feel so inclined: put the goodies along with one of the good deeds in 24 separate small boxes/bags/bulbs or whatever you feel like. You can label them Days 1-24, but I think the real fun is just picking one at random.

No matter if you are feeling on the up and ups or really down, you at the very least have something good to look forward to by opening up a day in your advent calendar. If your deed is to do something good for yourself, treat yourself; if it’s for someone else, remember there’s no act of kindness too small to do good. It could really make someone’s day and yours too!

These are just some of the nifty ways that truly do help me get into the Christmas spirit. 2021 may have been a continuation of the bah humbug that was the entirety of 2020, but don’t let it stop you from enjoying the Christmas and holiday season with your family or just yourself.