40-Day Christmas Challenge | Day 3: Decide What Matters This Christmas • Everyday Cheapskate

Christmas comes with an astonishing number of things we’re apparently supposed to care about.

The cards. The cookies. The decorating. The gifts. The parties. The matching pajamas. The neighborhood lights. The family photo in which everyone looks happy at exactly the same millisecond. It’s a lot.

And here’s the problem: if everything matters, everything gets your time, money and attention.

So today we’re going to decide what actually matters to you.

Not to your neighbor. Not to your mother-in-law. Not to the person with the perfectly decorated Christmas kitchen online.

You.

Today’s Challenge

Choose three things you most want to protect this Christmas.

Not three words like family, joy and peace. Those may be exactly what you value, but they’re hard to use when you’re deciding whether to spend $75, accept another invitation or give up a Saturday afternoon.

Make your three specific enough to help you decide. For example:

Instead of family, try an unhurried Christmas morning at home.
Instead of traditions, try Christmas Eve church and dinner afterward.
Instead of saving money, try paying for Christmas without carrying holiday purchases into January.
Instead of connection, try making time to see people I rarely get to see.

Now we’re getting somewhere.

Do This Today

1. Pick your Christmas Three.

What three things do you most want to make room for this year?

They might involve family, friends, faith, giving, travel, rest, food, a favorite tradition or simply enough breathing room to enjoy what’s happening.

There are no correct answers. Just keep it to three. Not twelve. We’re choosing priorities, not writing a Christmas résumé.

2. Make each one concrete.

Ask yourself: What would this actually look like?

“Spend time together” could mean Sunday dinner with the whole family. “Keep Christmas manageable” could mean choosing a few favorite traditions instead of trying to do every Christmas thing. “Give generously” could mean making room for a cause or person you especially want to help this year.

Specific priorities are much easier to protect.

3. Put your three somewhere you’ll see them.

Write them in your planner or a note on your phone. Stick them on the refrigerator if that’s where you’ll actually notice them.

We’re going to need them again.

Quick Win

Can’t come up with three? Answer this:

If Christmas were over tomorrow, what would I be disappointed that we hadn’t made time for?

Write down the first answer that comes to mind. There’s probably one of your three.

Why It Matters

Time and money have something irritating in common: you can only spend them once.

Every dollar that goes toward something you don’t particularly care about can’t go toward something you do. Every afternoon you fill is an afternoon you can’t spend somewhere else.

That doesn’t mean everything outside your three gets tossed overboard. Plenty of perfectly nice Christmas things can still happen. They just don’t automatically get first claim on you.

Over the next few weeks, invitations will arrive. Sales will pop up. Traditions will present themselves for their annual renewal. You’ll think of things you could buy, make, attend, cook, decorate and do.

Now you have a useful question:

Does this support something that really matters to me this Christmas?

Sometimes the answer will be yes. Sometimes it won’t. Both answers are useful.

This is where Christmas starts becoming yours instead of a collection of things you’re apparently supposed to do.