7 Christmas Self-Care Themed Ideas For The Festive Season

As much as Christmas is a joyous and happy time, it can be an overwhelming and stressful time, especially with all the planning Christmas brings with it. As much as the holidays are about togetherness, we often forget to care for ourselves. I make Christmas about everyone else, but I fail to make the time for self-care. Christmas self-care (it does exist guys) is something that I need to practice more during the festive season. I hope I can safely say that we all agree that Christmas is a selfless time of year, we focus so much on making others happy (absolutely nothing wrong with that btw), but we forget to think about ourselves. Christmas self-care needs to be made a thing - and that's the aim of my post, to make you see that too!

With that in mind, here are some Christmas self-care-themed ideas for you!

1) Deck the halls

"With boughs of holly"... No, I'm not going to start singing. Anyway, decorating the house for Christmas is a form of self-care. Ok, it may bring a little stress when you're decorating the tree and others are trying to "help" you or think they know best how to adorn the fairy lights, but it can be a form of Christmas self-care. This first point may have come pretty late as the majority of people I know have had their decks up since November. 

2) Get baking!

Christmas pudding, Christmas cookies, carefully building gingerbread houses, you name it, baking at Christmas is good for the soul. I'd love to start baking some of my own Christmas cookies, unfortunately, it involves me actually trying to bake, and I don't think it's something I'd be good at doing. I could never be one of life's Mary Berry's. 

3) Listen to Christmas music

If you're not listening to Christmas music while wrapping the presents, you're doing Christmas all wrong. Even though we've heard the same classics for god knows how many Decembers in our lifetime, they never get old! So go ahead and play those Christmas songs out loud on your Alexa or in the car!

4) Watch Christmas films

Whether they are the cheesiest Christmas movies or the classics eg Muppet Christmas Carol (an absolute fave!), watching Christmas films is such a lovely form of Christmas self-care. I'd love to know your favourite Christmas film!

5) Visit a Christmas market

I'm all for supporting small businesses at Christmas (and all year round really) and you'll find some of the best ones at a Christmas market. Even if you don't want to buy anything, it's good to browse around the Christmas market in your town/city (if your town has one). I've visited Cardiff and Bath markets before and I really loved walking around, buying things and enjoying the festive atmos. 

6) Spend time with family & friends

Christmas is all about spending time with loved ones if possible. I know that seeing my family and friends always puts me in the best of moods at Christmas. Especially when giving presents, speaking of presents...

7) Giving presents

Oh, I think this is one of my favourite acts of Christmas self-care. Giving presents and being able to see their faces when they open them is such a heartwarming feeling! With presents, I like to buy the most unique kind of presents, Etsy is my go-to for Christmas presents as you can always find that perfect present for each person you buy for. 

I'd love to know what your favourite acts of Christmas self-care are! Let me know!