It’s easy to get caught up in the hustle and bustle of
the holiday season! You want to decorate beautifully,
choose the perfect presents, bake all the goods, hit
the hottest sales, and make an amazing holiday meal.
Your heart is in the right place. You want to provide a
grand and memorable holiday for your family, so you
kick it into high gear to make it all happen. However,
the result often is that you end up tired, frazzled, and
overwhelmed, and that negativity swirls throughout
your home even if it’s decorated beautifully and
smells of vanilla spice cookies.
It’s a bit ironic that we run ourselves ragged and
spend way too much money to make our children
happy when research shows that it’s experiences and
connection that make children happy, not material
things. Dr. Thomas Gilovich, a psychology professor
at Cornell University, has been studying the question
of money and happiness for over twenty years.
He says “Our experiences are a bigger part of
ourselves than our material goods. You can really
like your material stuff. You can even think that
part of your identity is connected to those things,
but nonetheless they remain separate from you. In
contrast, your experiences really are a part of you. We
are the sum total of our experiences.” So, although
our children may love the new toys for a little while,
the experience of the season is going to stick with
them much longer. This is why it’s important that
we give them calmness, connection, and presence.
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