By Mallory Mattingly
Like so many, Joanna Gaines loves Christmas, but she wants to be intentional that the season’s festivities don’t take away from what really matters.
“You can feel it in the air already. As white frost stretches across windowpanes and trees shake off the last of their leaves. As twinkling lights rise to fill their place and scents of pine follow you wherever you go. As sounds ring out like bells in front of shops, like Sinatra and Crosby coming through the radio, like plans being made to see one another,” the HGTV star wrote on Nov. 11.
“It’s the feeling of Christmas, and if you’re anything like me, it’s one you anticipate all year long,” she continued. “A bright spot that shines in the distance. There as a promise of the year’s finality, and with it, a chance to slow down and surround yourself with only what fills you up — the people, the meals, the traditions no one dares let go.”
“This is the Christmas I hope for. The one I dream about during springs that feel like sprints and dead-hot summers that seem to have no end,” she added. “It’s the one I imagine waiting for me on the other side of hectic autumns and schedules that got the best of me. And it’s the Christmas I’ve learned I’ll have to fight for these next few months as the tendency to keep hustling blurs my reach for Christmas as it should be.”
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However, for some, Gaines said, Christmastime pulls them in so many different directions that they feel like they are “at war with expectations of more: more doing, more buying, more magic, more everything.”
However, Gaines hopes we all find time to rest this Christmas season.
“Our bodies need an off-ramp, though. They need time to find steady,” she said. “For me, the slowdown starts in November — by saying no. No to the hurry. No to the stress of doing things that don’t fill my cup. No to the temptation to do more. Because we know that time doesn’t double for those who run faster. It disappears. And we know that peace can’t find us when we’ve wandered too far from the hope we started with.”
“So, here’s to a Christmas unsurrendered. A Christmas that settles in so deep that it drowns out the hustle and bustle all around,” Gaines emphasized. “One that’s clothed in the same peace and presence as the very first. Here’s to a Christmas so rebelliously fulfilling that even a weary world can rejoice.”
The Gaines family loves celebrating Christmas, especially getting their tree.
“Chip’s motto: the bigger the tree, the better,” Joanna wrote on Instagram. “Our friends from @therobinsonfamilyfarm delivered this beautiful tree they got from @grigsby_farms in Salado, TX. It’s huge.”
The next day, she posted a video that showed four people decking the tree with lights.
“Always such a fun day✨ These sweet friends help me every year because lighting a tree this big is not only an art but also requires a master’s degree in electrical science. 20,000 lights!!” Joanna said.
Though busyness often seems to swallow up the Christmas season, let’s take a cue from Joanna and slow down to rest and rejoice in the birth of our savior, Jesus.
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