The time time between Thanksgiving and Christmas can be stressful. Finances get stretched with gift giving and large lavish meals and expectations are high. Living the simple life of your dreams needs to be simple. Sometimes that simple life gets hijacked by our consumer and Pinterest perfect driven culture. Here are seven simple ways to have a wild, happy, and nourished holiday season.

#1- Out of the Box Menu Planning

I’m going to tell you something that may come as a shock depending on your upbringing: nobody says you have to have a turkey on Thanksgiving or a ham for Christmas.

My sister and I made the observation that our Thanksgiving and Christmas meals looked very similar: turkey, salmon, green jello salad, green beans, brussel sprouts, mashed potatoes, and rolls with pie for dessert. While nothing is wrong with this, it gets a little boring to do it year after year. We came up with ethnic themed meals. Our Danish themed Christmas was a big hit with a full Danish Smörgåsbord including Smørrebrød sandwiches. I will be posting Smørrebrød and Danish Meatball recipes before Christmas so be sure to check in. For the Gluten-Free Danes who may be reading, be sure to try to my Gluten-Free Aebleskiver recipe. Yes, it’s true. I have strong Danish roots.

The 2021 Mossygoat Christmas meal theme will be celebrating the heritage of our small extended family. The dinner will be a mix of Danish, Scottish, and Czechoslovakian.

The possibilities of ethnic themed meals are endless and always results in good food. Ethiopian, Chinese, French, Mexican, Scottish, Brazilian, and German are just some examples of where this could go. If you want to to stay traditional, you could eat the traditional Christmas or winter holiday foods for that country. This is a great way to explore culture with children as well. You could add in picture books about that country and make a mini homeschool Unit Study.

Christmas time especially can be a stressful time. “Comfort food” has been a theme more than once with my family to combat the stress. In 2020 my sister even suggested nacho bar as a theme. At first I thought that the idea was ludicrous. Nachos for Christmas?!? On a homestead? But with Timothy’s mom in the hospital and multiple extended family members still unemployed, stress and worry were high and budgets thin so I agreed. In reality it turned out to be so memorable in the best of ways. Nacho Bar Christmas was a time where we all came together and ate nachos and laughed and let go of the stress that preparing large holidays meals entail. It really was a happy meal. We even used paper plates to remove the stress of dishes. The focus was coming together as a family after the devastating 2020 year.

#2- Control Holiday Spending

I’m going to let you in on my number one secret to saving the MOST amount of money on Black Friday. This is how I ensure that I maximize this bargain shopping day.

I don’t buy anything. Black Friday has co-opted our whole Holiday season. “Buy, Spend, Consume” is the message it gives. But that creates debt rather than true happiness. Before Covid hit, Black Friday was spilling into Thanksgiving with huge Black Friday sales starting earlier and earlier. They started at 11 pm, then 10 pm, then 9 pm on Thanksgiving Day. Thanksgiving, the day set aside for being with family and giving thanks, become the new Black Friday. In our post-Covid world, Black Friday now starts months early. You can even see Black Friday sales in June. If it is labeled Black Friday, just say no.

#3- Radical Local, Radical Small

Make a pact to yourself to have an Amazon-Free Christmas or a Walmart-Free Christmas or a Insert-Name-of-Big-Box-Store-Free Christmas. Choose to a support local businesses or family owned businesses instead. Giving homemade gifts is always a wonderful goal if it is something that you can do without stress and can plan for months in advance. If that goal seems too big to tackle, give gifts that local artisan crafters made. When you buy local, someone literally does a happy dance.

Checkout the Mossygoat Mercantile to view our in stock hand forged items. Railroad spike bottle openers make great guy gifts and each one is unique. They are made using traditional techniques in a coal forge and only hand tools are used. They are guaranteed for life and you are helping to support our family homestead. Use code SMALLFARM from now until December 15th you can get 15% off. This code is good in both our Mercantile and our Etsy store and works for StoryCircle and LiterarySTEAM products as well.

#4- Give Simple Homemade Gifts

Gifts, especially homemade gifts, do not have to be lavish to be loved. When my children were younger and we lived out of state, we gave a photo calendar to the Grandparents. I have given canned goods more than once. I try to gift special preserves such as Irish Draught Beer Jelly or Champagne Jelly. Both recipes are in the Ball Blue Book. Baked goods make excellent gifts as well but be sure you know any dietary restrictions before you give baked goods.

Last year my gifts were homemade candles and melt-and-pour soap. I ordered the supplies months in advance but somehow didn’t get around to making them. Both were simple enough to make the week before I was meeting with relatives.

There is no need to make elaborate gifts. Happy and simple go hand in hand. You can wrap homemade presents in fabric scraps or butcher paper that your children color on to make the wrapping special as well.

#5- Embrace the Concept of Want, Need, Wear, Read

Children do not need the tree filled with presents underneath to be happy. I know homesteaders embrace frugality, simplicity, and minimalism. We don’t need extra items cluttering up our house. Buy children something they want, something that they need, something to wear, and something to read. This keeps the expectations down to Earth, financially attainable, and consistent through out the years.

#6- Create New Traditions

Create traditions that nourish your family.

Every year on Black Friday, instead of shopping, the Mossygoat Family gets a $5 Christmas Tree Permit from the Siuslaw National Forest and we hike out into the forest with saw in hand. The coastal Siuslaw National Forest has a climate that creates trees that are not typical of trees usually sold as Christmas trees. The trees tend to be more spindly, less full, and have large area with missing branches. They are beautiful though. They are wild and happy. The tree not only represents Yule, it represents a family adventure. As a bonus, it’s a 12’ tree for $5. They are $200 at the nearest u-cut Christmas tree farm that has trees that tall.

Traditions do not have to be lavish or complicated to be meaningful. Here are some new tradition suggestions.

Make a Gingerbread House or decorate Gingerbread Cookies
Send out hand written holiday cards
Make ornaments. Keep one and give the rest as gifts
Travel to see holiday lights
Go to a Cut Your Own Christmas Tree lot for your tree or visit a National Forest that has tree permits

#7- Give Yourself Permission to Embrace Imperfection and Simple.

Say it out loud with me “I give myself permission to embrace imperfection and simple.” You do not need perfect holidays, you need happy holidays. If Martha Stewart perfect makes you happy then go with that. However, for the rest of us mere mortals, embrace imperfection and simple. The Christmas trees you see above were definitely not perfect and Nacho Bar Christmas is as far from Martha Stewart as you can get. However, they are memorable and meaningful and that is what you should strive for in the Holiday season.

If you are learning to bake from scratch make a simple chocolate cake rather than a “mint infused coffee chocolate cake sprinkled with edible flower petals.” Simple! Keep it simple! Simple is happy and most likely everyone is going to be secretly or not so secretly happy that someone made a plain chocolate cake.

Enjoy your Wild, Happy, and Nourished Holiday Season. Happy Thanksgiving from everyone here at Mossygoat Farm.

7 Simple Ways To Have a Wild, Happy & Nourished Holiday Season