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You are here: Home / Military Children / The Pressure to Have a Perfect Christmas

The Pressure to Have a Perfect Christmas

December 17, 2014 by Julie 7 Comments

The Pressure to Have a Perfect Christmas

The Pressure to Have a Perfect Christmas

The perfect amount of Christmas gifts, the perfect Elf on the Shelf spots, the perfect Christmas meal, perfect amount of advent activities, Pinterest worthy decorations, etc, etc, etc. It goes on an on and makes you think you are lacking in some way.

Why does it seem like there is so much pressure to have a perfect Christmas? We can blame social media but I think it is probably something that has been going on forever. Social media just makes it worse. We want to get Christmas right. We want everything to work well. We don’t want our children to be ungrateful and we want them to understand the true meaning of the day. We want them to experience the magic and make good memories. We don’t want to mess things up.

For some reason we have convinced ourselves that there is only one way to accomplish all that. That we should be doing what our neighbor is or we could be ruining Christmas for our family. Hogwash!

We all come into our marriages with a holiday background. A certain way of doing things. It could be very different from our spouse’s way of doing things. I remember our first married Christmas. My family all took turns with the presents. When my Grandpa was alive he would take his time on purpose just to be funny. So it was a total shock to me to be sitting with my in-laws and see the free for all present opening session. I was lost in a sea of a different way of doing Christmas.download (15)

Over the years we have developed our own way of celebrating the holiday. In a lot of ways it does look like the way it did when I grew up. Part of this is because my husband is usually gone when it is time to prepare for Christmas and has even missed Christmas with us a few years. I have just done what I have enjoyed and wanted to do with my own kids.

When I think about traditions and what we will do, I am not worried about them being perfect. I don’t care if my decorations are not Pinterest worthy or that my kids get more than three gifts. I don’t feel like I have to pick between Santa or Jesus. We do both just like my mom did. I try not to rush and plan too much but I also know that is because of my personality. Other people thrive on that.

I want Christmas to be special and full of good memories for my kids but I believe there are so many different ways to do this.

So if you are stressing about achieving the perfect Christmas, stop. Take a step back and think about what is important to you and your family. Continue old traditions and start new ones. Have fun with it and remember that Christmas is a wonderful time and no one should make you feel like you just aren’t doing it right.

What are your favorite Christmas traditions? Do you feel the pressure to have a perfect Christmas?

Last Updated on November 27, 2015 by Writer

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Filed Under: Military Children Tagged With: christmas

About Julie

Owner of Soldier's Wife, Crazy Life. Writer, reader, coffee drinker. Mom to three boys, wife of a National Guard soldier. Living life in Tennessee.

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Comments

  1. Amber

    December 17, 2014 at 2:55 pm

    I’ve never felt the urge to have a perfect anything. Perfection is boring to me. I just like to have fun 🙂

    A tradition we have is to open on gift on Christmas Eve!

    Reply
    • Julie

      December 29, 2014 at 2:11 pm

      Having fun is the best way to go!

      Reply
  2. Erica

    December 17, 2014 at 7:45 pm

    TOGETHERNESS! Really and truly, especially after having done this military lifestyle for a few hours. If I can wake up with my family and everybody enjoys each other’s company all day, then my Christmas is perfect. This year I’ve spent more time planning games to play together then the menu. 🙂

    Reply
    • Julie

      December 29, 2014 at 2:29 pm

      Yes for sure! I love games too!

      Reply
  3. Kara, the Hippy MIlspouse

    December 1, 2015 at 9:34 pm

    I feel absolutely no pressure to have a perfect Yule/xmas. I literally couldn’t care less what others do. I do it my way, because that’s the best (and as far as I’m concerned only) way to do it ;p

    That being said I do incorporate traditions my husband likes such as the Julbuck and opening at least some presents on Xmas eve. But he’s the only one who has any say on what we do for xmas.

    Reply

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  1. 15+ Inspiring Articles For a More Joyful Christmas - The Happiness Blogger says:
    December 22, 2014 at 11:05 pm

    […] The Pressure To Have a Perfect Christmas encourages us to focus on what is important during Christmas. Written by Julie of Soldier’s […]

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  2. 15+ Inspiring Articles For a More Joyful Christmas - Happy Wife, Happy Life says:
    April 20, 2015 at 9:06 am

    […] The Pressure To Have a Perfect Christmas encourages us to focus on what is important during Christmas. Written by Julie of Soldier’s […]

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Welcome to Soldier’s Wife, Crazy Life! I am so glad you are here.

My name is Julie and I have been a military spouse for 16 years!

My husband of 19 years has served in the active-duty Army and now the Army National Guard. We have lived in Germany & Tennessee during our time as a military family.

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I hope that you can find support for your own deployments, PCS moves, or anything else military life brings you 🙂

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