It’s the week after Christmas. The presents are opened, the family was visited, and the new year is fast approaching. Christmas was great, for sure. But you still feel sort of... unfulfilled. And maybe you feel this feeling every year. We spend all of December frantically trying to “feel Christmas” and all of January reminiscing it. Somehow Christmas Eve comes and we focus on all the things we didn’t do yet. The photos we didn’t take. The movies we didn’t see. The extra presents we didn’t buy for people. It’s ridiculous.

Most of us are totally blessed. We have a family that loves us, and we got plenty of gifts. But we can’t help but wish we bought more, or got more. Maybe even did more. Last year, my tree was so full of gifts (mostly for the baby!) that it was overflowing. I was scrambling so hard to get everything ready for when family came over that I didn’t even get to photograph the cute gifts in a perfectly curated pile of my favorite gift wraps. I mean, the ones my sister got were SO cute and I only got to admire them for a second before I ripped the gifts open and tossed the wrapping paper away.

When family arrives, the chaos of the day prevents you from taking any well-lit or well-posed photos. Lucky for me, my sister suggested we pose in front of the tree with Hailey last year and that’s how we got these cute photos. But without that, I would have missed an opportunity to take these priceless pictures. In fact, on the way home from John’s uncle’s house, I realized I didn’t get a single photo of me and Hailey on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day, aside from selfies I took. I was crying when I realized that she’d be looking back one day and not even see me there. I ended up dressing her back up once we got home on Christmas and took some photos in front of the tree, because I couldn’t handle NOT having a photo of us together on her first Christmas.

Every year, I say I need to start things earlier. And every year, I’m there with a list of things I didn’t accomplish. Maybe the days after Christmas should be spent planning for next Christmas. Nothing crazy. Just a reminder to do all the things you wanted to do. Like bake Christmas cookies, and wrap gifts in a professional manner and then take photos of them. Watch a Christmas movie, wear your matching pjs and take a photo. It’s a great way to hold on to a little bit more of that Christmas spirit, while also ensuring that the feeling of Christmas comes back next year. It doesn’t even have to be anything fancy- a cell phone photo of the fun is better than nothing at all. It’s important to point out that so much of what you see online is taken days or even weeks in advance. Everything is a photo shoot, perfectly posed and directed to elicit just the right emotions. Sure, Christmas cheer is one of them. But so is inferiority, regret, and comparison. So while my to-do list for next year will include taking nice photos of the fun, I don’t want to spend all my time pretending to do fun Christmas activities, and not actually do them. I encourage you to do the same thing.

What should go on this “next Christmas” list? It could be a photo scavenger hunt, or a scrapbook activity. And it should start with a list of what Christmas means to you- memories associated with it, activities to do, ways to give back and help others. And maybe if we use that Christmas regret from this year, we can create a concrete plan for next year that helps us to enjoy the holiday season for everything it is, and not everything it wasn’t.

So, on that note… what was your favorite part of the holidays this year? What will you be adding to your list for next year? Let me know in the comments below!

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