Willa posted a link to Simply Charlotte Mason’s article Charlotte’s Wisdom at Christmas. Truly sage advice!  In our cyber age where dozens of books, holiday recipes, menus, and decorating tips are available at the touch of the keyboard you can easily forget that any ONE choice from the above categories suffice for making memories. We tend to pile on more and more expectations of ourselves and our holidays til there is "a shade of anxiety on the mother’s face" as Charlotte says. 

I have been a holiday slacker in many ways.  Worse still because I feel so little remorse over that fact. I have a baby. I love my husband. We are all healthy as of today. We really don’t need more. And I am too tired to drum up much more. Articles like these from days gone by remind me that THIS is normal. Holiday excess is not. We have morphed this into something it likely never should have been.

So, her advice in a nutshell:

Read one Christmas book as a family.   One, not twenty unless you were so inclined, though you could easily find as many to burden yourself with. For us that is The 24 Days of Christmas by Madeleine L’Engle.  We will be reading it AFTER Christmas since it has taken me that long to remember the title (thank you Lissa!!) and track it down but that’s ok. It meant so much to me when I first read it that it is worth the wait.

Rest.  So as not to get that ‘shade of anxiety’ I am guessing. Plus passing out in the mashed potatoes is inappropriate. ; )

Watch over habits.  This has been on my heart as we have been relaxing school since Tess was born. It is easy to relax about a whole lot of things that need attention though. We will work on maintaining the routine  and the good habits even if we do break from academics. 

That’s it!  No clever ideas for napkin folding or dessert. Just read and rest.  I am remembering why I love Charlotte Mason.