Now that Christmas has come and gone and the holiday season is behind us, many people start to feel like something is missing in their lives. With the holidays always comes a certain feel – it’s in the air you breathe, it’s in the people you meet, it’s in the home you’ve decorated to be so welcome and warm. It’s the holiday spirit, and when the holidays are over, the spirit seems to disappear with it.
That doesn’t have to be the case, though. The holiday spirit is one that people should work to spread all year long, and it can start with you.
Decorate
Decorating doesn’t have to just be for the holidays. When you take down the Christmas decorations and your nativity sets, try putting up something else in their place. Maybe keep some white lights around to mimic the ambiance of having a Christmas tree in your home. Keep winter-scented candles out and burning to bring back that cozy, wintery feel in your home. Stick with winter-themed colors (whites, reds, greens, even some shades of blue) when adding decorations for now, and come springtime, switch it up with brighter hues to lighten up your home.
Keep Baking
There’s just something about holiday baking that brings the whole family together and really warms up a home. So keep baking! Think about cinnamon breads or muffins – even baking something as simple as blueberry muffins can bring back that warm holiday feel to your house. Gather the kids and make some good old fashioned chocolate chip cookies. Get back in the giving mood by sharing with family members and neighbors.
Start New Traditions
Every family has its own holiday traditions, whether it’s putting up your outdoor Christmas decorations together or setting up life size toy soldiers for your annual Christmas party or gathering around the fire for a holiday story. So why not continue the trend by creating some new wintertime traditions? Maybe you take the whole family sledding after the first big snow storm every year. Or maybe you all go to a huge ice skating rink in a nearby city for a weekend every winter. Maybe it’s just that you all sit down and enjoy the same movie on the same weekend of every year. Get creative – and start making traditions that you can keep throughout the winter, not just around the holidays.
Spread the Cheer
Have you ever noticed how everyone seems to be in such a good mood around the holidays? Some of that cheeriness tends to disappear after the New Year as people start to focus on their resolutions and starting a fresh year. Keep that cheer alive. If you start by smiling at 5 people every day, those 5 people will likely smile at others throughout the day, and the cheer will spread as quickly as it does around the holidays. Remember what Christmas feels like, and try to mimic that feeling in your every-day life, then share it with others.
With these few simple ideas, it will be easy to keep the holiday spirit around all year long, and come next Christmas, you’ll be prepared to spread even more cheer than you already have for the past 11 months!