Miranda tucked her feet into the soft brown sofa, pouting as the television screen flashed a Christmas bonanza sale. Resting her head against the armrest, “I don’t even know what to do tomorrow. I am tired of just eating rice and chicken every year for Christmas,” she sighed.
Are you like Miranda, confused about how to celebrate Christmas?
The season of Christmas is special. Even before 25th of December designated as the official date of celebration, there is always this air around the corner, especially when the month of December arrives. Everyone can’t help but feel excited, looking forward to 25th when workers don’t have to be in their workplace and students, home, relaxing after sessions of exhausting academic work.
Therefore, below is a list of how to get started without missing out. I call it the TAMWEST law.
- Take yourself shopping
Nothing gives one greater joy than feeling good about oneself. Looking back at the beginning of the year, you’d be surprised that not much people have sat down and told themselves, “Sandra, you deserve this, well-done.” Most times, we seek approval and commendations from others which, most of the times, don’t come. Rather than wait for others to buy you that cloth, game, shoe, bag or gift you desire, buy it for yourself. Yes, you might be low on cash, but nothing is too small for you to get for yourself.
- Arrange Your house and wardrobe
You are back from the store where you got that little gift for yourself. Your heart is about to burst from the excitement of getting what you’ve always wanted that no one had gotten for you. The next thing is put things right. Someone once said that the best way to keep overflowing with happiness is to keep a neat environment. Okay, that’s pretty funny, but I want to believe it is true.
- Message everyone on your contact list telling them how special they are
You’d be surprised that there were some people on your contact list you didn’t even ask how they were faring throughout the year. Since Christmas is a season of love, it’s a great opportunity to tell others how much you appreciate and love them. As you are making others feel good about themselves, you are giving yourself an even much greater Christmas celebration because you are doing the exact thing that Christmas represents: LOVE.
- Write out your goals for the new year with strategic plans on how to achieve them.
Most people started this year with goals, but checking their goal list, you’d find out these goals are yet to be achieved. Not because these goals are not attainable, but because they didn’t put strategic plans in place to see that they achieved these goals. Christmas season draws us closer to the beginning of a new year. More often than not, most people begin to review their activities for the year and consoling themselves with the thought that they will do better the following year. Instead of engaging in this wishful thinking, Christmas should be a time when you pen the unachieved goals, add the new ones you will like to achieve, and beside each one of them, write out the strategies you’d use to achieve them. Waiting till the beginning of the year to write goals is not ideal.
- Evangelize
What better way to spend the Christmas than telling another person about Christ whose birth we are celebrating? It’s a time when others are intimated about why such a king was born at such a time and why, we, Christains, celebrate Him. You can either visit the hospital, bearing gifts and assuring the patients there about how Christ loves them and want to see them whole again. You can pray with them too Or you visit the orphanage home, assuring the orphans that Christ is both their father and mother and He loves them more than anything in the world.
- Sit down or Snuggle.
Exhausted from the evangelism you went for, it’s time to relax. Sit behind that TV screen to watch your favourite Christmas show or snuggle into bed with a Karen Kingsbury novel.
- Thank God
By this time, it’s almost late and time to go to bed. Thank God for a wonderful Christmas spent well.
Congratulations, after fulfilling this law, you’ve successfully celebrated Christmas without missing out. Since this leaves you with joy overflowing in your heart, you’d want to continue doing this every year.
The bottom line is that there is no better way to spend Christmas than to appreciate you, appreciate others and tell them about God’s love for them.