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Here are three solutions for lowering your stress,
being present and purposeful, and providing a holiday
experience that will fill your child’s heart with joy.
1. Create new family connecting rituals
this season. Holiday traditions are meaningful
to children. They create a sense of belonging and
stability that kids need, and they carry those
traditions with them throughout their lives, often
passing them to their children. This season, be
intentional about creating a couple of rituals or
traditions that build it time together. This will
provide time for you to slow down and be present
with one another. Some ideas are watching
Christmas movies, driving around town to look at
lights and decorations together, reading a holiday-
themed book each night before bed, building
gingerbread houses, or baking and decorating
cookies. Do these regularly throughout the season
to keep your child’s cup filled.
2. Focus more on gifts of experiences than
on material things. Rather than piling lots of
plastic toys under the tree, think outside the box
this year to provide unique gifts of experiences
that your child will love, knowing that their
experiences will far outlast the plastic they’ll soon
outgrow. Ideas include zoo tickets, cooking classes,
trampoline park passes, ice-skating lessons, sports
camps, horseback riding lessons, museum tickets,
concert tickets, waterpark passes, amusement park
passes, sporting event tickets, and music lessons.
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