Give glory to God this Christmas (and ditch ’the elf on the shelf’, please!)

The elf on the shelf was when it all changed for me.

I’m not sure how many people can claim that a red elf getting up to mischief for 24 days changed their Christmas but I can!

I have four children so the run up to Christmas is full of fayres, nativity plays, parties, Christmas jumper days and so much more. Figuring out how to manage the calendar and those rhythms with associated taxi requirements alongside preparations for a wider family and church Christmas with all that can bring means the mental load increases exponentially in December.

I didn’t realise it at the time because it happened gradually, but I got sucked in to yearning for a ‘perfect’ Christmas, feeling that I needed to do all the things I saw and heard other people doing. I longed for matching PJs, for Christmas baking sessions, for gorgeous pictures in wintry scenes, for my presents to be wrapped in matching paper and became anxious at the thought that my children may not have magical Christmas memories FOREVER…