010: Home: Holiday Planning
Topics
- Purpose of family holiday planning meeting
- Purpose of traditions
- Sample organized family planning meeting
Purpose of Planning Meeting
Mitchells Holiday Planning meeting is a family meeting before the holidays begin where they make sure those things that are most important to them that year get on the calendar.
Purpose of Traditions
Traditions are a big part of the holidays because they tie families together, past and present. But sometimes families keep adding and adding more traditions, which can become overwhelming.
Sample Family Planning Meeting
Mitchells start out by asking all the members of the family what they want to do that year and plan for it. Those traditions that aren’t important to anyone, aren’t scheduled, and no one stresses over it. One consistent tradition of the Mitchells is that they pick and choose which traditions they want to do each year.
Introductions of kids: Red. Blue. Green. Yellow. Purple.
What activities do you want to do?
Red: I like to go sledding.
Green: I like hot chocolate.
Purple: Decorating the Christmas tree.
Blue: Stocking people/hanging stockings.
Purple: Singing Christmas Carols
Blue: I love the neighborhood Christmas party.
Dave: The neighborhood party is fun with friends, eating dinner, decorating cookies, playing games.
Purple: Baking and decorating Christmas treats.
Green: Lazy night watching a Christmas movie.
Yellow: Add treats to the movie for movie theater night.
Purple: Christmas movies have good morals.
Red: Christmas Shoes is a tear jerker, sweet movie.
Yellow: Call members far away and sing Christmas carols.
Amy: Clarifies the story of when it was -15˚ so we sang Christmas carols over the phone to distant relatives rather than walk around the neighborhood in the cold.
Amy reviews the family list that everyone just came up with and were written on the whiteboard. Add anymore?
Green: Likes acting out the Nativity story, dressing up in costumes.
Yellow: Likes making gingerbread houses.
Purple: Likes playing in the snow, building a snowman and snow forts.
Green: Likes drinking eggnog.
Dave: One year we made eggless eggnog to enjoy. We also made hot cocoa.
Red: Tells the story of when the kids tried hot cocoa for the first time, expecting sweet hot chocolate, and Purple was a little surprised by the bitter flavor.
Purple: Likes spending it with family and friends.
Amy suggests looking at the list the family made together of traditional activities, prioritizing the favorites, and then set them to an open evening. Last thoughts…
Yellow: Likes shopping for siblings.
Red: Things have changed over the years. We used to kinda get each other presents little presents. Now the kids get a sibling name, which is rotated every year, and they make more of an effort to give a nice gift to each other.
Purple: It makes it easier to buy for one person than remember what everyone wants. It keeps it simple and less expensive.
Amy: Let’s go around and each family member speaks up for the activity they want to do most.
Green: Looking at Christmas lights
Purple: Decorating the Christmas tree
Yellow: Sledding
Dave: decorating the tree, buying gifts and hanging stockings are gonna happen.
Blue: Neighborhood party with friends and food.
Red: Lazy day watching a movie
Purple: Acting out the Nativity story
Dave: We’ll also schedule travel and visitors.
Amy: Traditions are a great part of the holidays. I can’t wait to continue on these traditions this year.
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Wreath in Snow by Chad Sparkes, https://www.flickr.com/photos/chad_sparkes/23100296026/in/photolist-Bci4cY-AR1T8A-pwLKyW-pu652P-q3Wa1F-91t4c9-5KV7Xv-rAqQzR-7oeoNc-4g3tRZ-7nmsmb-5P6bMS-8z1vPB-vDzzi-7nKTA5-i2BUnE-aRDt9T-5LuWxF-i2BEWF-6je3r7-6MYwje-i5V4mN-3oWhDM-dxTG6K-y5eB1-8ZRMAp-dxbrnr-x51fi-8ZQuoM-7qkuZg-tCjPm-dh5uyb-uo6VB-5MomxK-41ZSe9-iv1yK2-e1EaG4-4g7WyN-sAFQG-dL8Wrp-7mD3Ur-91pV6e-dtotLD-dm2bUk-ae9ftm-hnv72-JRkrU-4e7uWQ-e7Lbti-rCiqPD ↩