Embracing Twixtmas and Enjoying The Now

I knew that if I spent any amount of time on Instagram this week I would be faced with people taking their Christmas decorations down and feeling ready for a fresh clean home, and the first story I watched confirmed it. I get the urge to move on, but until a few years ago I liked to put my decorations up shortly before Christmas and take them down on Twelfth Night. That’s 12 whole days after Christmas. Those 12 days after Christmas were still part of the festive season for me. 


Me and my 3 children on my bed in Christmas PJs
You can find me hanging out in PJs hanging on to the coat tails of Christmas


These days I am itching to get my decorations up at the beginning of December as I see more and more transformed homes on social media, so yes by the time the main day is over I can understand why people are ready to move on to the next thing, but can we all just slow down for a minute?


The Pressure To Always Be One Step Ahead

As a professional blogger I am constantly looking ahead. Any themed content I produce needs to be published far enough in advance to be useful so I begin looking at Christmas content in July and aim to publish Christmas Gift Guides in October. By December it's too late because a huge chunk of people have finished their present shopping. 

Towards the end of December I’m thinking about Valentines, in January I'm planning Mother’s Day, in February I'm thinking "Easter". My blog always has to be a few steps ahead. Even on Instagram themed content ideally needs to be carefully timed. Show pictures of your children in a cute Halloween get up at the beginning of October and its novel and interesting, share on Halloween itself or even worse, on the first of November, the day after they actually needed the costumes for and many people will just scroll past having become bored with the witches and ghouls filling their timeline.

I understand all this. I play by the rules and I perpetuate the problem, but sometimes, like on this cold December morning, it makes me sad that we are so busy planning and looking forward that we don’t take time to enjoy the moment. On the fourth day of Christmas, as the song goes, my true love should be giving me 4 calling birds, we haven’t even got to my favourite “5 gold rings”, yet all around the country people are packing their Christmas decorations away.

I’m not going to make a stand and insist I will keep my decorations up until the 6th of January, I’m far too easily influenced for that. Besides I have posts to publish about cleaning and fresh starts, but I might spend a few more days keeping Instagram to a minimum so I don't take everything down before the New Year fireworks.


The Magic Of Twixtmas

This time between Christmas and New Year often gets a bad rep for being a nothing time. People forget what day of the week it is, they eat too much and they sit around at home, but I’m embracing it. It is the longest period of time each year when my partner is off work, my children are home without the pressure of school work and we have a house full of toys and food. We are lucky to be together in a way that we aren’t at any other time of year. 

I will set an alarm for Thursday morning to put the dust bins out, but otherwise which day it is doesn't matter. It isn't important if the house is a mess or my children spend all day in their PJs because we are allowed to take a break, we are allowed to slow down and just enjoy the moment and I think this is what we should be encouraging right now rather than rushing to the fresh starts of January.  So I will be dismissing all those targeted ads for diet programmes and instead I’ll grab the popcorn and a blanket to snuggle on the sofa watching a film in a room lit by twinkling lights as my son offers me endless “ice cream, ice cream” from his new Ice Cream Cart.

And I wish you all a very lazy and relaxed Twixtmas too.

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