Episode 241 : Hope in simplicity - letting go of the perfect christmas
Episode 241 : Hope in simplicity - letting go of the perfect christmas
Embedded Files
Hope in simplicity - Letting go of the perfect Christmas - episode 241
Hope in simplicity - Letting go of the perfect Christmas - episode 241
“What do you value most about the holiday?” In this podcast I will share some ideas on how to simplify Christmas and let go of the “perfect Christmas.” I share the idea of taking a moment to really reflect on what you love the most about the season and then go all in on that. Then share a few examples of different ways to simplify decorations, menu, traditions and gifts. Rethinking a quote: there is no way to have a perfect Christmas but a million ways to have a good one!
Show Notes: Hi Friends! I hope you enjoyed listening to this episode. Below are all the references.
Key Topics
Key Topics
Why I chose to focus on hope through simplicity this Christmas
Decorating in a quieter house and adjusting expectations
Cherished memories connected to Christmas decorations and nativities
The beauty of meaningful traditions over elaborate ones
A reminder that Christmas hasn’t always been as big or busy as it is today
How doing less can actually increase hope and reduce stress
Choosing what matters most and letting the rest go
Simplicity in Decorations
Simplicity in Decorations
Letting decorations go up gradually instead of all at once
Focusing on meaningful pieces like nativities and the Christmas tree
Memories tied to ornaments collected over years and travels
Allowing kids to decorate — and resisting the urge to “fix” it
Remembering that perfection isn’t the goal
Simplifying Gifts
Simplifying Gifts
Our family’s gold, frankincense, and myrrh gift tradition
One meaningful gift
One useful gift
One larger or fun gift
Acknowledging how gift-giving can feel overwhelming
Ideas like exchanging names, gifting in batches, or sharing “favorite things”
Letting go of the pressure to find the perfect gift
Simplifying Meals
Simplifying Meals
A Christmas Eve tradition I inherited: soup and bread
Connecting simple meals to the humble birth of the Savior
Mixing homemade and pre-made food
Having a Plan A and a Plan B for holiday meals
Giving yourself permission to eat out or keep things easy
Reconsidering Traditions
Reconsidering Traditions
Noticing when traditions begin to feel burdensome
Choosing a few traditions that truly build connection
Visiting the Kirtland Nativity exhibit
Watching a favorite Christmas movie together
Singing carols, attending concerts, and participating in choir
Asking: Is this tradition building me up or running me ragged?
Hope Through Simple Service
Hope Through Simple Service
Experiencing the Giving Machine in Cleveland
Loving how simple, tangible acts of giving can bless others
Letting my daughter choose a gift for someone in need
Seeing service as an accessible, hopeful practice during the season
A Final Reflection
A Final Reflection
“There’s no way to have a perfect Christmas — but there are a million ways to have a really good one.”
Sources & Further Reading
Sources & Further Reading
Living Within the Margins — Christine
Reflections on simplifying Christmas decorations, gifts, and expectations to create a more meaningful season.The Salt Effect — Christy Seigler & Mary Sternberg
Articles on simplifying family traditions and focusing on connection over performance.Luke 2:1–20
The Nativity story and the simplicity of Christ’s birth.Doctrine & Covenants 78:18–19
Gratitude and faith as foundations for hope and resilience.Elder David A. Bednar, Things as They Really Are
Insights on intentional living, agency, and resisting cultural pressures.President Dieter F. Uchtdorf, “Of Things That Matter Most”
A reminder to focus on what is eternal rather than what is urgent or showy.“There’s No Way to Be a Perfect Mother…” — Jill Churchill
A quote often attributed to Jill Churchill that parallels the idea of a “good” Christmas over a perfect one.
Transcript
Transcript
I am Camille Johnson, and this is Finding the Floor.
Stories and reflections of midlife motherhood, family, and finding meaning in it all.
Join me as I share a little piece of my life and figure out what I want to be when I grow up.
Hi friends, welcome to Finding the Floor.
And this has been really fun to think about and also think of ways that like I actually
Being simple and really thinking about how the real meaning of Christmas is very simple.
And sometimes we make it so much bigger than it really needs to be.
So I am happy to report that I have most of my decorations up.
We still need to get lights out.
That may or may not happen this year.
And ornaments need to go up on the tree.
But the tree is up, stockings are up, nativities are up.
All the little things that I usually get out are up.
And it was a little weird this year because everyone's been busy.
And by everyone, I mean the two people that are home with me.
So my husband and my daughter.
And now it's not quite the same.
It's still lovely, I think, though.
So I've had that since before I was married.
And then we sort of accumulated different ones, either through gifts or purchasing when we're away.
So I have a couple really cool ones.
One came from a friend of ours who they were in Ethiopia.
And then when my parents served their mission in Ghana,
they brought back a nativity for everyone in our family.
So we have that one that's really cool.
Anyway, so it's just really fun to get the different nativities out.
Like that's sort of my main decorations.
And then I have this cute little nativity that a friend of mine made that I've had for years.
And she just made them out of like tiny pots with little wooden circles on the top.
And it's always been one of my little favorites.
And I haven't even gotten to all the memories of the different ornaments.
Or we've gotten gifts from people.
This year when we were at the Harry Potter
We got an ornament to remember that trip.
And that's sort of just really cool built into Christmas, how celebrating Christ brings us together.
It's just really kind of cool.
So happy to report that I'm definitely coming along.
And that's one part of, I think, simplifying Christmas that was suggested by, I found this blogger.
The blog is called Living Within the Margins.
And we got to be really pretty close with them.
So his grandpa served in the Navy when he was 19.
And then when he got home, they got married after the war.
So there really are like, their children are baby boomers.
So Nate's mom is a baby boomer.
Like Santa Claus brought everything.
the tree, the presents, the decorations, the lights.
Like people put up Christmas now at the beginning of November and it's just,
You aren't even done with Halloween and all the Christmas stuff is out.
People start shopping in July.
And I kind of like this idea of it's okay to make things simple.
One even suggested like maybe you just have a few things that you do every year.
And I know we don't have a ton of decorations, so I really could decorate everything in one day.
And I think if as we do things more simply, that makes it easier.
seem to be able to get done, then we tend to have this more hopeful attitude.
and then filling up their stocking.
Because they get lots of other gifts from grandparents and their siblings they do in exchange.
And I really don't think that you have to do a ton to still make it fun and meaningful.
And so with the gold frankincense and myrrh, gold is more of like the big kind of like worldly gift.
meaningful gift, and then a useful.
Sometimes that's hard, especially if you do things last minute.
But anyway, that's what we work towards.
Oh, I have to get them just the right gift.
Sometimes I think, this would be really useful, but someone may not a useful gift.
They want something that is not useful.
Again, I found this blog, Living Within the Margins, and this woman, Christine,
who is the blogger, and I was looking and I couldn't find her last name.
But I think you can still do this.
Maybe your cards come out on New Year's instead of trying to get them out before Christmas.
So a lot of those things could be simplified depending on what you like.
and what is like your most favorite thing about Christmas?
I just really liked thinking about that.
So what is it that I love the most about Christmas and going a little more all in with that.
So then I'm going to also suggest a couple things that she suggested on ways to simplify and like
just different ideas depending on what category you really want to do.
So she says, for gifts, she says most adults don't actually need anything for Christmas.
So maybe you think about just giving gifts to the children of the family.
Or she talks about exchanging names so there's fewer gifts to give.
And this is what I have been trying to do kind of with my neighbors and friends gifts.
Like you kind of do a big batch of similar gifts or gift certificates for people.
So those were a couple ideas I liked.
But instead, what if you say, I'm giving you something that is something I love.
These are some of the things I really love and I'd love you guys to have them.
We, as like my extended family, used to do these cousin gift exchange.
and everyone would be assigned a cousin, and we'd do these gift exchanges when we got together.
And this year we're sort of at a kind of crossroads.
So my sister had a similar idea of like, let's do almost like a favorite things gift exchange.
And it's more like, if you can make it to my dad's house on Christmas Eve,
and bring a favorite things gift and we'll do a gift kind of like white elephant type exchange.
Not necessarily white elephant, but favorite things.
So I think those can be really fun.
So I have loved that tradition.
You guys can steal that tradition if you want.
But it just makes Christmas Eve really easy.
Some people are responsible for soup or bread, depending on how we get together.
And so that's one thing that I've enjoyed.
Other suggestions, again, from living in the margins, like find more things that are pre-made.
So I used to feel like I had to like make everything from scratch.
She also had the suggestion, have a plan A
where if everything goes really well, then I'm going to make this and this from scratch.
And then if not, we'll have a plan B where we're just going to get pre-made stuff.
Those are some ideas that I like.
To add on to the idea of simple decorations, some
just consider doing a really pretty tree and then a few special decorations.
I know for us, it's really all about our nativities and the tree.
We don't do a ton of other things.
And then I love her suggestion, let the kids decorate the tree and then don't touch it.
And they were so excited to decorate the tree and everyone else was kind of busy.
And so they totally did the tree and it was, and it got done and I was happy about it.
So remember, things don't have to look perfect because that's actually not a real thing.
Then I also found this other blog, which was talking about like traditions.
And the blog called The Salt Effect, and it is written by Christy Seigler and Mary Sternberg.
And maybe there's just a few traditions you really want to think about that
Our area, we have the Kirtland Historic Sites.
And that's just one thing that we always go up and see, invite friends to go see.
It's just kind of a cool, simple way to think about the real meaning of the season.
And what are things that everybody enjoys?
Like I try to make my kids at least watch one cheesy romantic Christmas movie.
But yeah, just kind of think about the traditions
And are they running you ragged or are they building you up?
And a couple years ago, Nate and I started going to the Cleveland Orchestra's Christmas concert.
And it's right like 20 minutes from us.
And they just do a fun concert and they always sing the Hallelujah Chorus.
And when we were in college, we would always have a Christmas concert.
So I just love that song and it's always fun to just have a really good choir sing it.
We have this unique opportunity where I have to go pick up my daughter from BYU-Idaho
and it was a little bit earlier than I normally would like when I travel for Christmas.
So that'll be kind of fun to think about and how we want to continue.
I also love just singing Christmas carols.
Christmas songs in a choir where I'm singing apart and it's all really cool and goes together.
And we've had a couple performances and just having that is really been helpful for me.
So, but you can also carol with friends or just have people over to sing.
I just think night singing nights and spending time
with people putting those two together is super fun.
Sometimes we want to donate to a charity.
And this year is the first year that we've had a giving machine in our city.
And it actually came pretty early.
and was only here till December 7th.
I went to two of them with him.
And that was really fun to think about a simple way to give
back and to benefit others in a very specific way.
The one in Cleveland is no longer here, but you can still donate online if you want to.
There's like a QR code, but it's so fun.
So the giving machines are literally vending machines.
Four local charities, and then there were two national charities.
And then each of the things you can buy are specific things that the charities might need.
So for instance, there was a charity that was helping women suffering from domestic violence.
And so we ended up donating a few things like a set of sheets and blankets or laundry or a bus pass.
They even have goats and bees and chickens.
So if you have a giving machine, that's something that was really fun.
When this podcast comes out, it'll be the 14th of December.
If you can believe it, I feel like December is just like flying by.
And so we're about 10 days out till Christmas Eve.
So what are things you can do to maybe simplify?
Are there things you want to leave out?
And I want to relate that to Christmas, if you think about it.
So how do you want to have a really good one?
Ways that you can make it simple, but still meaningful in your life.
Okay you guys, have an awesome week and I will talk to you next week.
I hope you enjoyed today's episode.
Special thanks to Seth Johnson for creating and performing the theme music.
Come back next week and thanks for listening.
Page updated
Google Sites
Report abuse