Let’s talk Holiday traditions. So you don’t have your own family, you think you can’t have any. But believe it or not you are allowed to do fun and special things every Holiday season. You’re thinking, “I do singleness every year at the Holidays.” Hahaha

But what if you created your own traditions for yourself?

I give you permission to do that. I know that seems strange.

I hear, oh I want to send out Christmas cards but I can’t because I’m single. Or, all my friends have a fun dinner every year and I can’t because I am single. Or, I want to do something special for advent but I can’t because I don’t have kiddos. Well, let’s change that.

Create your own traditions. I want you to think through all the things. Decorating for Christmas, going through Advent, any special events or things you want to create and put on, how you want to do Christmas Eve, how you want to do Christmas Day, New Year’s Eve.

When I was single I just did what my family did. I was still apart of all of that, but I felt robbed of creating my own stuff until I was married. Don’t make that mistake. Live it up. Do what you feel like you are being called to do this year, as a single woman.

So, I encourage you to pause and think through the ways that you want to celebrate. Decide right now what you want the rest of December to look like. With intentionality, plan out what you really want. Don’t wait for it to happen, because it may not. Create it.

Creating the fun I want to have has been so refreshing for me. If I want to have women over for tea and coffee then I can do that. I can plan it, invite them, and run the whole thing. If I want to do something every year for myself during Advent, then I do it. If I really want to serve the homeless, then I seek it out and create the traditions I want to have.

As I have taken women through the Single Ladies Holiday Thrive Guide, I have loved hearing how they want to show up for this season. Most of them say, I want to celebrate and serve others. What typically ends up happening is a lot of self-pity parties, without much celebration. And a lot of thinking about what isn’t happening in your life right now and just making it through, which ends up being self-focused and not others serving.

So how do we fix that?

Start off with a plan for how you will celebrate and serve and then show up and be present. Which is the greatest gift of all. Being present with those God is putting you around. Showing up and being present in the current life that you are in. Being present with the circumstances surrounding you this Holiday season. Being present in the midst of the good and the bad.

You know what present looks like?

It looks like asking others how they are. It looks like putting your phone down and engaging. It looks like being there without all the distractions of what has to be done, or you wish you were doing. It looks like having an awareness of yourself so you can be others-focused. It looks like making the most of each moment that makes up this Holiday season.

The Holidays will pass quickly and I would love for you to walk away grateful for all that you learned about yourself, others, and God. Grateful for of memories filled with celebrating and serving. Creating the Holiday traditions that you want to have for years to come, single, married, kiddos, or widowed.

Here’s to creating those traditions, I dare you!

Angie

P.S. if you want to have me walk you through the Holiday Thrive Guide please click this link and grab it and click this link and schedule a time with me. I would be thrilled to love on you in that way this Holiday season.