How to Write Your Holiday Bucket List + Make The Most of the Holiday Season - Updated for 2023
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This holiday season will be a festive occasion to rival even my Christmas-rich childhood.
I haven’t always loved to admit it, but I’m definitely a holidays person. Less to the specifics and more to the effect of decorating, cooking special meals, crafting, enjoying traditions new and old, and spending as much time with my loved ones as possible. Oh yes, and gift-giving - I do love that part.
A couple years ago, I started to make a Holiday Bucket List to set the intention for how I’d like my season to go.
When I wrote that list, I wrote,
“It's Christmas Eve as I write this post and I feel as though the holiday season slipped away from me.”
Anyone else ever feel this way?
The hustle and bustle and rush that starts with putting the roast in the oven and the sides on the stove - through the flurry of shopping season - and into the end of the year which, thanks to modern expectations from employers (and the need for the extra hours and potential holiday pay) sees many people working through most of what would be a restful winter.
My holiday bucket list doesn’t exactly slow time but it does punctuate the madness happening around me with milestones and activities I can rely on.
How to make your own Holiday Bucket List
Like any bucket list, your Holiday Bucket List is a collection of activities, milestones, or goals you’d like to realize during the holiday season. If you’ve never done this before, think about anything you’ve ever missed out on in the past and wished you’d had planned ahead.
This list is for those wishes.
As with literally everything I do, start with a brain dump!
Start with what’s already on your calendar.
Recall your favorite (and least favorite) traditions from your childhood, then venture into the traditions and activities you’ve seen but not yet experienced.
Consider how you want your space to look and feel.
Outline your priorities for what will make this holiday season special, nurturing, and full of what gives you life.
Record your responsibilities (like going to that less-than-ideal office party) and imagine how you could make the most of it.
Take into account what’s possible, realistic, and feasible.
This includes by time, budget, and personal bandwidth standards. What’s not feasible for you this year could be totally possible next year with some creativity, planning, and commitment. Whatever doesn’t make your Holiday Bucket List for this year should go straight to next year’s list. Set a reminder to review next year’s list in September to see what still fits your idea of a wonderful season.
Using a colored marker or pen, circle the items that bring you the most joy while still being feasible. You likely won’t complete your whole list - that’s okay! Imagine how amazing it will feel to have completed even just one or two things you haven’t done before, or in ages.
Set your list in ink by re-writing, in your very best handwriting or favorite font, your Holiday Bucket List.
Hang it in a conspicuous and inspiring place, coupled with decorations and holiday cheer (if that’s what you’re into), and review it often to remain inspired.
The most important part: Schedule your list in your calendar.
Give yourself the opportunity to make the most of this special season by giving yourself time to do so. For me, I schedule when I’m buying my tree, when I’m decorating it, when I’ll light my house, and when I’ll wrap presents. In doing this, I make sure that life doesn’t creep in and overstep my holiday boundaries.
My Holiday Bucket List
Choose a real fir tree.
It’s my first Christmas in my Knoxville home, Ashwood Place, and the first time I have 100% say in the way I get to decorate. My partner and I share the same style, values, and love for the season, so we’re working together to create a winter wonderland that’ll outlast the holiday season. For us, this starts with a fresh cut fir tree.
Decorate that tree with my own ornaments.
I have a few ornaments that have traveled with me from my childhood, but after living in a tiny house, my breadth of possessions is quite limited! I spent most of November peeking into JoAnn, Target, and vintage shops for ornaments to add to my tree. There will definitely be pictures to come, but I can tell you, it’s a menagerie.
Light the house with icicles and colorful garland.
Some people might call it a hassle… but the opportunity to have my own home to dress with lights and decorations is a dream-come-true! I have a general lighting scheme designed and some of the lights picked out, and once they’re up, I’m not taking them down til after New Years Day!
Decorate the house with natural and heirloom pieces.
Slowing down and consolidating my work has opened my schedule a bit to include more making and crafting for fun, as opposed to performative art. I love collecting dried plants, sticks, and the throw-away fir clippings from tree lots to make garland, but have never made the time to do it.
This year, I already have a huge collection of fir clippings and have been picking up pinecones as if they were dropped change. I collect almost all of my inspiration and ideas on Pinterest - this board is my holiday traditions collection: essentially, Christmas decor, crafts, and visual inspiration for my own home.
Visit the Biltmore Mansion in Asheville.
Knoxville’s proximity to Asheville might be one of my favorite things about my home. The city itself is a wondrous escape, perfect for a day trip spent vintage hunting or kombucha drinking. Yet, I’ve never even set foot on the Biltmore grounds. From what I hear, the Biltmore at Christmas is a sight to behold, so we might as well while we’re so close!
Send Christmas cards and gifts on time.
Timeliness isn’t always my specialty, and each year I struggle to work through all the steps to get Christmas cards and wrapped presents into the mail on time to be enjoyed a few days before Christmas. Here’s my workflow to make sure I’m on top of my game this year:
Group together all names and addresses of recipients in one place.
Start with a list - gifts, cards, etc. that includes each person on the above list.
Pre-purchase or gather shipping supplies that fit the items on the list.
Most shipping destinations on my list take between 2 - 7 days, depending on package size, from Knoxville. I set my shipping deadlines to Tuesday, December 10 for cards and Friday, December 13 for presents.
I scheduled time on both of those days to go to the Post Office and I estimated the postage at home using my kitchen scale to form a rough budget.
Working backward from that, I set my “acquisition” (for lack of a less stodgy word) deadline for all cards and presents to be Saturday, December 8 and my wrapping deadline to be Sunday, December 9.
These timelines apply to gifts I’m sending away and gifts I’m giving at home, simply because I enjoy the look of presents under the tree at home!
Light luminaries in the yard on Christmas Eve.
Throughout my childhood, my whole neighborhood would come together and fill hundreds of white paper bags with sand and a single chunk candle - an assembly line of difference faces, ages, and culture - to line the streets and light the night on Christmas Eve. We’d then load the completed bags into wagons and truck beds and slowly line the streets, six feet apart, until every bag had been placed. Then, we’d pass through with lighters and light every single candle.
I’ve seen few more magical sights.
My ambition isn’t to light my new neighborhood this year, but I will be reviving the tradition in my own home with a lit walkway and porch. Just to be sure Santa can see my house at the bottom of this mountainous, woodsy valley.
Create my yearly photo album.
My biggest and greatest item on this list is to turn all of the beautiful memories I’ve captured this year into a forever fixture in my home. This was an incredible year filled with independence, growth, change, expansion, generosity, community, and excitement. I have thousands of photos from daily life to renovating Ashwood Place to traveling to falling in love.
This is also the loftiest goal, as it is already December and photo albums (at least, in my opinion), are no quick feat.
As a photographer and storyteller, I find it imperative to keep and display photos rather than let them vanquish on a hard drive. Creating my year in a photo album is my commitment to living that belief and enjoying the rewards of my efforts.
