Thanksgiving is already this Thursday and with the upcoming holiday season of Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year’s, it is certainly a good time to sit down with a journal and start planning for the holidays ahead. Creating a luxurious holiday season takes intention and time to contemplate through the details. Usually, people feel a bit of frustration by the end of the holiday season because they may be left with a lot of overwhelm (or maybe even underwhelm). Some may even have a holiday hangover because they feel like the ‘magic” of the holidays are simply gone. I think this happens because there was no set intention into what would make the holidays luxurious and enjoyable. Many go on autopilot and do the same things they’ve always done without questioning if they are creating the luxurious holiday season they would like to experience.
So why not plan out an afternoon this weekend for a journaling session to create your luxurious holiday season on purpose. Make your favorite hot drink, light a seasonal scented candle, put on a favorite holiday playlist, sit by the Christmas tree if you have one up (or put on a Christmas ambience on YouTube), grab your favorite pen and journal and enjoy working through these10 journaling prompts to create a luxurious holiday season this year.
What Essence Words Would I Like To Describe This Holiday Season?
A good first journaling prompt is gathering a few essence words that you would like to describe your holiday season for this year. This will help guide whether certain things such as decor, experiences, foods/drinks, gifts, and invites fits into the essence of the holiday season you want to create. If your essence words for example are luxurious, calm, and elegant then this will help you decided what gets to be a part of your holiday experience through this filter. For example, when shopping for decor you can ask yourself if it embodies luxurious, calm, and elegance. When getting invites to holiday parties you can also ask if this party feels luxurious, calm, and elegant. Start with the essence words to guide your holiday this year to help filter your choices for a better-quality experience. Some essence words to choose from could be luxurious, calm, elegant, cozy, quiet, fun, minimal, stylish, timeless, classic, traditional, glamorous, exquisite, festive, sophisticated, and family centered.
How Can I Treat My Body Exquisitely This Season?
‘Tis the season of all things delicious and I really enjoy all of the seasonal treats that I get to experience, but I also want to make sure that during this time of extra treats, less sunlight, and colder days that I am also taking care of my body too. Taking care of ourselves physically during the holidays can help start the new year feeling more vivacious instead of sluggish which also gives us more elegant energy to start the new year well too. Some ideas for taking care of your body might be gentle workouts a few times a week (be sure to schedule as you are able), a massage or facial, taking a walk outside for some sunlight, taking a Vitamin D supplement, visiting the sauna (if you have access to one), taking relaxing hot baths or showers, at-home spa treatments, eating well during the work weeks, staying hydrated, getting 7-8 hours of sleep, some gentle yoga, or Pilates. Part of having a luxurious season is knowing that you are well cared for throughout the next month to start the new year in a good mental and physical shape.
What’s One Thing I Can Take Off My List This Year?
With this being the season of a lot of “doing” in preparation for Christmas, there can be a lot of things that needs to be planned and attended to. Things such as putting up the Christmas tree and decor, purchasing and wrapping gifts, holiday parties, Christmas dinners/brunches, traveling, office parties, and so much more. Try to think of at least one thing (but maybe even two or three things) that you can take off your list this year. Did you not really like sending Christmas cards last year? Then simply remove it from you list this year. Don’t want to spend hours wrapping gifts? Get beautiful gift bags instead. Tired from too much cooking? Offer to host a potluck style meal instead and have others participate. Not excited about an event every weekend in December? RSVP no and stay home instead. Find at least one thing you have been doing that is not causing you a joyful experience and find a way to either eliminate it or outsource it.
If I Were Staying At A Luxury Hotel For The Holiday Season, What Would I Expect The Experience To Be Like?
If you are like me and simply love a beautiful luxury hotel, then this prompt is a fun one to journal about. Sometimes it can be hard to imagine what we want a luxurious holiday to look and feel like, but in this prompt, you get to outsource this for inspiration. If you were going to stay in a luxury hotel this holiday season, what would you expect to see, hear, taste, experience, and what feeling would you have? Some ideas may be a seeing large, beautiful Christmas Tree decorated in traditional holiday colors of dark reds and gold, twinkle lights throughout, beautifully appointed meals, freshly made baked treats on offer, fluffy robes and slippers in the room, a large soaking tub with seasonally scented bath salts, seasonal facials at the spa, a cozy Christmas jazz playing in the background, and a rich hot chocolate delivered right to your room to enjoy in those big fluffy robes while you put on a Christmas move to enjoy in bed. Come up with ideas with what you imagine a stay at a luxury hotel would be like and start creating those moments for yourself at home. Everything that is offered at a luxury hotel can be recreated at home with some planning and on a budget. Here’s a short video from The Goring Hotel in London for inspiration.
How Do I Want To Experience This Holiday Season Sensually?
This journal prompt will help create a sensory luxurious holiday season with knowing exactly what you want to experience with your senses. What kind of sounds would you like to hear? Classic Christmas music, Christmas jazz, Classical Symphonic music, or Contemporary? What are your favorite scent profiles? Woodsy like a fireplace or a Christmas tree, sweet like baked cookies, fresh like snow, or classic like berries and oranges? What about tastes? Are you looking forward to baked goods like sugar cookies, or rich and velvety like a hot chocolate or chocolate truffles, spicy like gingerbreads or savory like charcuteries and dips? And of course, visually with the decor. Is it classic greens and reds or more neutrals? What kind of decor? Christmas trees and nutcrackers, or poinsettias and twinkle lights? And lastly the physical sensations. Is it sitting by a warm fireplace or submersing into a hot bath, wrapped in a cozy blanket and fuzzy socks or a fluffy robe, or an oversized turtleneck sweater or a fitted cashmere sweater. Cold morning walks or sitting in hot saunas? Work through the different sensations that you are looking forward to and show up to create the experiences to delight your senses for the holidays. And by all means, you do not need to choose one or other, just pick the ones that speak to you.
What Are Some Holiday Themes I Am Loving on Pinterest Right Now?
Pinterest is a great place to gather ideas for a luxurious holiday season. If you are currently not on Pinterest, then I highly recommend you try it. Create an account and make just one board if you prefer and name it “My Luxurious Holiday Season” and then search “luxurious Christmas”. Start pinning the images that resonate with you for a week or two. You can even put on some Christmas jazz in the background while you do this to set the mood for your luxurious Christmas idea gathering. By the end of the week or two take a look at your board and find some themes. What are the colors you pinned the most? Activities? Decor? Food or drinks? Experiences? Hobbies? What themes are you noticing? Is it a cozy cabin kind of holiday? A holiday in the big city visiting all the markets? A luxurious getaway at a 5-star hotel? A big family celebration? Cozy nights at home with Christmas movies and a lit fireplace? Journal about what themes and ideas you are noticing and work to create those for this year’s holiday.
What Are Three Luxurious Things I Want To Experience This Holiday Season?
Think about three truly luxurious things that you would love to experience this holiday season. Some idea examples are dressing up and seeing The Nutcracker, booking a Christmas Afternoon Tea at a luxury hotel, a seasonal facial at a spa, a holiday music symphony, staying at a luxury hotel for a couple of nights to relax and enjoy their elevated holiday surroundings, visiting favorite local shops or antique stores, booking a reservation at that one restaurant that really goes above and beyond for holiday decorating, or a seasonal wine tasting. For luxury at home some ideas might be hosting a holiday wine and cheese evening with friends, having a holiday themed at-home spa night, watching classic Christmas movies or baking shows with freshly baked cookies, sitting around the fireplace drinking a hot chocolate or mulled wine, or maybe even just quiet mornings wrapped up in a cozy robe and a coffee by the Christmas tree. Think of at least three luxurious things you would like to experience this season and plan for them.
What Is One Luxurious Gift I Can Buy For Myself?
So often we rely on others to buy us that “perfect gift”, or there may even be something that you do want, but do not want to divulge to others even though you would still love to have it (something like a luxury $100 candle for example). This year, journal a list of five luxurious gifts that you would love to have for yourself, then pick at least one and get it (may possibly even be on sale on Black Friday). Try to order it online too as many places will offer gift wrapping. If they do offer wrapping services, go ahead and opt for it to be gift wrapped (even if it’s a small charge) and then when it arrives simply put it under the tree to be opened on Christmas day. Buy that Jo Malone gift set, that Diptyque candle, those beautiful diamond stud earrings, that gorgeous coffee table book, the beautiful silk scarf, or that exquisite silk pajama set. Set a budget for as much as you can for that luxurious item and delight yourself this holiday season.
What Does My Dream Christmas Day Look Like?
All of the preparation above leads to the culmination of Christmas Day and how we experience it. In order to plan for a luxurious Christmas, you have to have clarity as to exactly what that looks like. Use this journal prompt to dream about your luxurious Christmas day from beginning to end. Start with when you first wake up to when you go back to bed. My perfect luxurious Christmas day for me looks like: Wake up to the sun shining and pull back the window coverings to enjoy the Christmas lights below in the town square. Make a coffee to enjoy in bed for an hour or two with Christmas jazz playing in the background and the little fireplace heater turned on. Make a batch of cinnamon rolls and watch the Christmas parades on television by the Christmas tree. In the afternoon take a walk around to get some fresh air and visit the local Starbucks for a holiday flavored drink and enjoy seeing the large Christmas trees in our neighborhood. Come back home and enjoy a holiday themed charcuterie board while watching a Christmas movie. Take some quiet time to read a holiday themed book and around five begin cooking a Christmas dinner of prime rib with a red wine reduction along with a few traditional sides. After dinner, open the 2-3 gifts the husband and I got for each other plus the bonus luxurious gift I bought for myself. After opening the gifts and doing a quick clean we’ll cozy up on the sofa with a dessert and watch an episode of The Great British Bakeoff holiday special on Netflix. After cleanup we will settle in for the evening in cozy pajamas by the Christmas tree enjoying the last few hours of a luxurious, calm, and elegant holiday season.
What Is The Feeling I Want To Be Left With After Christmas
Sadly, I think there are people who are left with a feeling of overstimulation, exhaustion, or even disappointment after the holidays. If you find this happening to you just know that you are not alone. One can feel the need to do all the things when it comes to the holidays, so that is why I created this post. To help you create the holiday season that you truly want to experience and not of one that is a blueprint of what you “should” be doing. When you think of your personal holiday season, what is the feeling that you want to be left with afterwards? Some words you could use might be delighted, enchanted, calmed, renewed, content, relaxed, rested, pleasant, soothing, excited, joyful, fun, or even elegant. Pick a word or two that resonates with how you want to really feel on December 26th and then write some ways that you can ensure that you achieve it. My words are delighted and elegant. I think of delighting the senses, so some ways that I plan on achieving my delighted and elegant feelings are by decorating my home beautifully, baking some holiday cookies, making a homemade French hot chocolate to savor on a cold weekend night, playing my holiday playlist throughout the month, enjoying some holiday themed hobbies like jigsaw puzzles and books, visiting my favorite shops to visit their Christmas displays, enjoying my favorite holiday movies, cozying in at home by the fireplace with a Christmas themed tea tray and holiday editions of English Home and Victoria magazines, and enjoying all of the holiday specials available for viewing.
You can create a luxurious holiday season ahead by being intentional about what you truly want to experience. Whether you want to create a calm, simple holiday season cozied up at home or you want to go all out with parties, family events, or travel, take some time to think through and journal about your luxurious holiday and then simply plan accordingly to ensure that you are left with your own delighted and elegant feelings of a beautiful holiday well spent.
