Forcing the Festive: Holiday Cheer, Defiantly AF 🎄🖕

This time of year is inherently stressful, fast paced and full of financial strain. Add on a struggling economy and a toxic political climate and it’s understandable if you’re having a hard time feeling the holiday cheer now that December has rolled around.

Personally, I’m in favor of just skipping the whole thing and escaping to a tropical paradise, but my wallet would disagree. Maybe next year…

So I’ve decided that instead of letting the stress of stretching thin budgets this holiday season, that I’m going to lean into homemade gifts, creative holiday crafts, and forcing the festive if I have to. Out of sheer defiance, if nothing else.

Boycott the consumerism, the gifts and obligations if you have to. But I dare you to have yourself a merry little holiday, no matter what or how you’re celebrating. Because it’s cold, wet and gloomy out there and we need our little treats. And our little glimmers of light and hope in the darkness. Right?

Here’s some ideas for reclaiming holiday traditions (or starting your own), homemade and heartfelt gifts, and unconventional but helpful ways to help spark the holiday spirit in even the most curmudgeonly Scrooge. For those of us that need a little extra push to feel festive, I give us permission to spike our hot cocoa if we need to.

I’m definitely making more pumpkin pecan pie for the holidays, it’s not just for Thanksgiving! I love my family’s recent “experiences as gifts” trend and definitely hoping to continue that this year. But I’d love to hear what you have planned and your favorite holiday cookie and treat recipes, too…

🎁 Make Gifting Easier: The financial stress of the holidays is enough, but you can plan with your family to make modifications that ease that strain. Everyone can chip in for a group experience or trip, you can do a fun white elephant gift exchange so everyone only needs to buy one gift, or you can do secret santas and each draw a name. It’s more about the time spent together than the physical gifts anyway.

🫙 Homemade Gifts: If you want to show your love but don’t have the budget to buy gifts, homemade gifts are always appreciated. Maybe skip the awkward sweaters (unless that’s your recipient’s thing) and go for something edible. My mandarin marmalade is always a hit, and since it takes so long to make, it truly is a labor of love. Printed photos in thrifted frames, homemade soaps or bath salts, and dried herbs from the garden are my other homemade standbys.

🍽️ Dinner Parties & Potlucks: I miss having a place I could host groups in. When I lived in Mendocino, the rotating dinner parties were central to my social life (and there’s not much else going on in rural areas like the Mendo coast so we made our own fun). Gathering and breaking bread together is a sacred ritual that’s fallen out of practice. Let’s do more cozy informal ugly xmas sweater parties and less stressing about hosting extravagant meals and throwing big productions (although I love those too).

🌞 Sun Chasing: The older I get, the more the time change really hits me and I get all mopey when the weather turns gray for days at a time. Which is why in the winter I try to make an effort to get outside earlier in the day and get some Vitamin D on my pasty skin. Luckily winter hikes can still be a thing around here, and it’s the perfect time of year for foraging mushrooms in the woods. But if you get real winter, bundle up and go for a walk at lunch, lay out on your deck if you can, and get those little moments of sunshine wherever you can. Or escape somewhere tropical for a week if you’re lucky!

💊 Stay Up on Those Supps: Taking some extra Vitamin D in the winter is a great idea too, the winter sun can only do so much! I started adding Everyday Dose to my morning cold brew to get some extra nutrition and functional mushroom magic in (get $5 off to try it with my link), and I’m adding extra magnesium (we’re all deficient and it can help with sleep and anxiety). More lions mane and other good stuff to help with energy is in Boost Gummies from EntheaCare, and they have some great CBD, CBG and other cannabinoid magic as well. I also take a gummy multivitamin and a PMS herbal support gummy, and ashwagandha. Anything I can take in gummy form, I’ll actually remember!

💞 Get Crafty Together: It’s a great time to get together to make a big batch of fire cider or make and swap fermented foods. Making wreaths or other holiday decor, or delicious things you can share in eating, are all fun and festive holiday activities that should become traditions. One of my favorite holiday season traditions is making and decorating sugar cookies with family, using granny’s old holiday cookie cutters.

☕️ Hot Bevvies & Sweet Treats: A great gift basket to make for neighbors and friends is a selection of hot beverages and a nice festive mug. You can thrift for mugs and baskets, then fill them with orange spiced teas or ciders, cinnamon sticks, dried citrus rounds (the mandarin tree is poppin’ - it’s time to make these), or a festive hot cocoa mix with marshmallows and candy canes.

💪 Quality Time & Acts if Service: This is the perfect time of year to be generous with your time. Give the gift of a body double to help a friend clean out their garage or work on setting up a community garden. Volunteer as a family at a local food pantry, or donate to a local food drive. Spending time together and in service to others is so much more valuable than any trinket.

🎅🏻 Fake it Till You Make it: You’re welcome to just be a scrooge, but I hope you’ll join me in putting up the holiday decorations, ordering the festive fancy drink while on the way to the thrift store for that white elephant gift, and faking that holiday cheer until you start to enjoy it just a bit. I could go without most xmax music and I still miss Halloween, but the holidays are here whether we like it or not. We might as well spread a little sparkle and joy. 🎄

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