Midlife Holiday Diary: What Worked, What Didn’t

As the holiday season winds down I find it helpful to jot down some diary notes regarding what worked, what didn’t and how I can make things better (for me!) next year. This practice is ingrained in me from 30 years in retail, where our Holiday season was so important because of its oversized impact on our results for the year.

Now, however, my midlife holiday diary serves Future Me. I love the holidays so much and so it’s important to me that I actually enjoy them. The lesson it took me many years to learn is that more is not better when it comes to December.The more I can declutter from this month, the more energy I have to enjoy everything it has to give. With that filter in mind, I took a few minutes to reflect on what worked for me this December, and what didn’t. Those few minutes will save me hours of energy and anxiety as the 2026 holiday season approaches. Here’s what I learned, perhaps there are some parallels to your own midlife holiday experience!

Lesson 1: The Big Edits Worked

You may remember from an earlier blog that there were 2 big edits I made to my holiday this year. The first was scrapping my born-in-COVID tradition of baking 10 varieties of cookies during the month and gifting them to friends and family. The second was altering and simplifying the menu for Christmas Dinner.

The first midlife holiday diary entry is to note that both edits were a HUGE win. Until I eliminated both, I did not realize the amount of pressure, energy and stress that cookies and a fancy dinner (who knew?) were costing me! My biggest epiphany was that is wasn’t the actual time it took to make the cookies or the Christmas dinner that was stressing me out – it was the anticipation of how much time that was impacting my ability to have fun doing any of the other holiday things (including sitting by my Christmas tree doing nothing!) By editing both activities I freed my mind up to enjoy everything else – and boy did I. I got so many comments from my friends and family about how much more relaxed I seemed this year. Well, apparently that’s what happens when you declutter the things that aren’t serving you!

Lesson 2: Slow December is not a time to be productive

Every year in December my in-home client work slows way down, which is great. This year was no different. I targeted the week of the 15th to finally finish the Digital Photo Organizing Guide I’d been promising for months. With no in-home sessions that should have been no problem, right? Wrong! What I learned (painfully) this year is that the weeks prior to Christmas (and the week after) are not conducive to productivity. I guess I have the midlife adult version of what my kids used to suffer from every December – I used to call it Christmas Crazy. In those weeks my brain is apparently capable of only short spurts of productivity, not in-depth, focused-brain work. Spoiler Alert, I did not finish the Guide (look for it this month!) It mostly cost me some self-flagellation and time I could have spent relaxing. Midlife holiday diary Lesson for next year – don’t plan any massive projects in December, you won’t get far!

Lesson 3: Family Time Can Just Be Time

Having all 3 of our kids home is always a treat that I look forward to at Christmas. And for some reason, across many years I felt the need to schedule something specific to do as a family. Past activities included The Nutcracker, Zoo Lights and an overnight stay in Leavenworth. Each year there would appear some fly in the ointment: (jet lag, COVID, sibling squabbles, rain, etc., etc., etc.) Then I’d get pissed that I spent money and energy planning said activity and everyone wasn’t having a ‘perfect’ time. So this year? I planned nothing. Our Forced Family Fun activity was an hour hike with Gus followed by breakfast out so we could be out of the way on house-cleaning day. And guess what? It was great. And it cost nothing (well, the hike was nothing, and the breakfast was cheap!)

The lesson is that I do not need to plan an ‘extravaganza’ of a holiday activity for us to have a good time. Turns out, we just need each other’s company.

Midlife Holiday Diary: Lessons Learned

I invite you to take a few minutes of your own to reflect and jot down some notes. I am going to use this blog as my holiday diary. I’ll go back to read it as the 2026 holiday season approaches. Prioritizing my own need to enjoy the holidays is still kind of new to me, but I’m learning! And the diary helps to cement the important lessons. Happy New Year!