The holidays come around every year and each year brings the promise of magic and wonder. Christmas delights entire families and gets them excited for gifts, celebrations, and time off from their regular routine. The excitement generated by Christmas can quickly fade when things start to feel overwhelming. Without proper planning, Christmas time can morph into a stressful time filled with too many activities and not enough resources to meet your expectations. Luckily, there’s a simple way to avoid stress during Christmas time.

You may have heard about mission statements and how they help organizations and businesses laser focus on their overall goals for their business. It directly connects to the why of why they are in business. A mission statement helps businesses, and those who run them, weigh their decisions and make the best choices possible that align with their mission.

In the same way that mission statements serve businesses, they can serve families. When it comes to Christmas, having a mission statement can help families make decisions that support their mission and reduce stress spending time on things that don’t suit their mission.

A sample mission statement for Christmas could be: To focus on family and friends making memories that last. Another could be: To use the season as an opportunity to serve others.

Taking the time to define what matters most helps remove any doubt about where to put your emphasis and where to set healthy boundaries. If your family mission is to serve others, it makes sense to set aside resources to donate or volunteer during the holidays while giving up other activities. If your mission is to focus on family and friends, it makes sense that you would plan activities that are family-oriented.

Try these tips for creating your Christmas mission statement

Tip- Involve the whole family. Make creating your mission statement a family affair. Involve everyone in determining what matters most to them and crafting a mission statement that reflects the goals for the season. It might be something unique like: to experience Christmas as a family on a vacation.

Tip- Write out your mission statement and post it. Make sure your mission statement is front and center to remind your whole family what they have agreed is their focus for the holiday.

Tip- Weigh your choices against one another. When you are faced with decisions about what to do with your spending, time, and obligations, weigh them against your mission. If the opportunity doesn’t support the mission, it’s an easy no.

One of the easiest ways to reduce stress during Christmas time is to agree ahead of time on what your focus is going to be. Creating a mission statement can help your family identify their primary focus for the season and avoid unnecessary stress.