Declutter Your Holiday: Simple Midlife Shifts for a More Joyful Season

Thanksgiving weekend is over and it’s time to declutter your holiday before the volume knob turns all the way up over the next 3 weeks! What does that look like? Well, I have a few suggestions of things you can do to simplify your holiday and increase your ability to enjoy the beauty of the season as it was originally intended.

These suggestions come primarily from my own life experience and that of my friends, family and clients. In midlife we are better positioned to identify what is truly important and what we’ve been keeping around via reflex. If you devote a minimal amount of effort to make a few small shifts, the resulting effect on your holiday state of mind can be exponential. Welcome to this month’s Mixed Bag – let’s dig in!

Declutter Your Holiday Cards

Let’s begin with an easy edit. Those holiday cards you’ve been holding on to for decades are likely taking up quite a bit of space in your home. There are two kinds of holiday cards I am referring to:

• The cards you receive from friends and family 
• The leftover cards that you send each year of your own family

I recognize that these both feel illegal to get rid of. Why is that exactly? Because they contain images of people we love and tossing their sweet faces in the recycle bin seems callous and rude! But here’s the thing – it’s not. Those cards aren’t the actual people, they are just images.

If you would like to preserve the images of your friends’ kids growing up over time, may I suggest digitizing the cards instead of keeping the physical copies. That way you get the best of both worlds; you preserve the past and declutter at the same time!

I went through this process myself a few years ago. Back in the day, I pasted all of the holiday cards we received into an album. When I ran out of space in the album, I moved on to a shoe box. When the box filled up, I grabbed a second shoe box. And so on, and so on, and so on! Oh, and I had 2 drawers in my office filled with the ‘extras’ of the family cards I sent out over the years. These cards that I had been keeping around were now taking up a material amount of space in my home and there was no end in sight (as Christmas continues to come year after year!) It was time to prioritize my space instead of the mountains of cards that I never looked at. So into the recycle bin they all went. I haven’t missed them!

Declutter Your Holiday Decorations

The next Declutter Your Holiday assignment is your holiday decor. You are pulling everything out now (if you haven’t already), which is often the hardest part of the process. While you have everything out in the open, take the opportunity to separate the following categories:

• Anything Broken
• Anything you don’t care for
• Anything you didn’t put out last year (or the year before, or the year before)

Now, the broken stuff can go straight into the trash. And the rest can go into the donation bag/box. Put that box in the back of your car and the next time you are doing errands, swing by your favorite donation drive-thru and drop it off. Done and dusted!

This year I focused on an ornament purge. We have WAY too many ornaments and so many of them are left after the tree is full. As we were decorating, I pulled aside ornaments that our dog had damaged and the ‘rejects’ that haven’t made it to the tree in multiple years. Also, there were several that I bought years ago in a frantic moment when I thought I needed more shiny ball ornaments. The only ones Target had that day were striped and so ugly, but I bought them anyway?  There is no reason to keep them – so they went into the donation box. I’m going to do the same exercise when we take things down, because I know my kids hung  a few that were supposed to be in the donation pile. (Diary note for next year, do my purge before they get into the ornament boxes!)

Declutter Your Holiday Traditions

Last but not least – let’s do a quick declutter of your holiday traditions. I’m sure you have at least one that isn’t serving you. Is there an event you’ve ‘always’ gone to that seems like a chore? An activity you put in a lot of effort to keep up that no one else seems to appreciate? A gathering that includes a bunch of folks who bring you down instead of lift you up?

Everyone has something they can edit. I’m not advocating you wipe out your entire holiday agenda, just make a few cuts here and there so you have more time to relax and enjoy the activities that are important enough to keep.

Here are two fresh examples from my holiday season. In 2020 we were in the throes of the pandemic and Christmas was cancelled. I LOVE Christmas and wanted to offset my sadness with a holiday-related activity. So I decided to make 10 different varieties of holiday cookies, box them up and deliver them to all of my family and friends. This helped me feel festive and connected to my people. It was a lot of work, but there was a lot I couldn’t do so I was grateful to focus on baking. My people gave the cookies rave reviews so I continued the tradition the next year and each December since 2020. The difference is that the other holiday traditions that fell off the calendar 5 years ago are now back on. And like I said, those cookies took a lot of work! Last year I found myself dreading the cookie-making instead of enjoying it. It caused me stress instead of joy. So this year I’m not doing it!

Example number 2: Christmas Dinner. We host a huge fondue party on Christmas Eve. It’s my favorite part of the holiday season and I love to do it. We also host a much smaller family gathering for Christmas dinner the next day. I’ve taken great pains to make a fabulous meal, inclusive of multiple dishes that feel special and traditional. The problem is, now that I’m in midlife I’m pretty tired after the fondue party. While the rest of my family is lounging around, enjoying their Christmas Day, I’m striking the set from the night before, re-scaping the table for the family party and slaving away in the kitchen in hours before they arrive. I’m exhausted and not very much fun when they arrive.

So – I’m decluttering the complicated meal this year. I’m going to make a lasagna the week before and stick it in the freezer. Then all I’ll have to do is pull it out and stick it in the oven. I’ll get several hours of my Christmas Day time back – and that feels like heaven. 

You’ve Got This!

Each year I find one or two holiday things that need decluttering. And when I edit them, it feeds my holiday spirit anew. I encourage you to try it! Remember, you can start small – maybe just the cards this year. Even a small shift can make a big difference in your ability to enjoy this special season!