This year, so many of the things we do to connect and share holiday traditions—travel, feast, sing, hug—increase the risk to us and those we hold most dear. Experts agree there is no certain way to celebrate indoors per usual and keep the people we love safe.
It feels conflicting and quite painful to balance the drive to pull the people we love close and share the annual magic of our kids at the holidays, especially with their grandparents, against the need to protect those we love.
I’ve had to give myself lots of space to struggle with it all and remember, once again, how once-in-a-hundred-years-hard this time is. When we give ourselves that chance to be with what's hard, we also win the opportunity to let go a bit and remember what really matters about the holidays: Joy.
“Deep within us, we all have this impulse to seek out joy in our surroundings the drive towards joy is the drive toward life.” —Ingrid Fetell Lee
How can we find extra joy in such strange times? How can we genuinely connect and share real joy, even when we’re at a distance? How can we adapt and carry on our traditions—those rituals that keep the joy alive year after year?
Introducing our 2020 Joy Guide
We've explored those three core questions—how to add joy, connection and traditions into our holidays—in our new 2020 Joy Guide—a one-stop resource full of simple, easy and beautiful ways to help your family make this holiday and 2021 even more connected and joyful.
Family rituals and traditions are important ways we connect the generations, give our kids deep roots and a sense of to whom they belong, from where they’ve come and what really matters—gifts that lead to resilience, confidence and lasting happiness.
“Storms make trees take deeper roots.” —Dolly Parton
So many of the joyful traditions we know and love have already persisted through a great deal of time and change. They can still persist this year; we just have to get creative and adapt them to this moment.
And if we focus on what is at the heart of the holidays and think a bit flexibly, we can not only keep our loved ones safer, we can also make our traditions stronger and create some new ones along the way!
Download your Joy Guide today, and we wish you and yours a safe and joyful holiday season! And, please comment or post in our OutdoorsAll4 Facebook Group to add your ideas about how to share and spread joy coming. The more the merrier!
