Holidaze is a new series about having a fun, less costly, relaxing fall and winter holiday season.
Today is a quick one.
If you use social media, there's a lot of pressure now to do things in the most beautiful and efficient way. Knitting is a good example that comes to my mind. Influencers share like twenty or thirty entire garments they knit in a year. Knitters talk about how "inefficient" it feels to do one style of knitting compared to another. I can't stress enough how much these people are not knitting, like, socks that their children need.
But you can spend as much time as you want doing whatever step you want.
This year, I've had a realization over time that, when I'm playing a video game, the time that I spend having fun organizing all my tedious stuff in my inventory is part of the game for me. The point of the game is for me to have fun playing the game, and I have fun when I'm moving everything around and sorting it and stuff. I'm playing the game. That's playing the game.
Just now, I was sorting some small crochet shapes that I want to sew together into some kind of, blanket, art piece, what is it? I don't know. In the past, I tried to do a quite technical way to attach hexagons into one blanket, and all it did was confuse me. I realized that, for me, it will be fun to do individual little sections of stitching these edges together. The construction itself is part of what I'm enjoying. I don't have to try to streamline or maximize it.
I can imagine a lot of ways this applies to holiday planning.
You know yourself, so, will you have a good time spending the time to make cookies from scratch, will you enjoy doing fussy little icing that takes a long time? Do the one you like, for as long as you want. Buy a baking mix or do a simple decoration if you don't like those steps.
Maybe you want personalized decorations, but you don't enjoy the tedium of doing a project. You could use sheets from a shaped notepad, or buy die cuts in bulk from the craft store. Maybe you like cutting out shapes, but you don't want to do the rest. You might find someone who does like, you know, adding the strings or applying a glittery sticker or whatever you're doing.
I want you to think about how you can spend time doing the part you like, no matter if that's the most aesthetic or efficient part. If you're doing something you enjoy, that is an efficient use of your time, because enjoyment is a big part of our lives. Especially during the holiday season.
As I add Holidaze posts, I'll link to the others.
Day 1: Saving Paper Day 2: Garlands
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