We’re delighted to share a post from our friend and homeschooling mama, Brittany Acciavatti. She invites us into her family’s approach to savoring the season through what she calls “Cozy Christmas Schooling.” This special time is all about slowing down, crafting together, and embracing the festive rhythms of the season, with a focus on meaningful connection and creative moments.
A Homeschoolers Intention for a Cozy Christmas
It’s that time of year….when the magic of the holiday season starts with the faintest twinkle in my heart. Since becoming a parent, this age old twinkle also carries the power to trip my nervous system into panic mode. Visions of long gift lists, extravagant meal ingredients, and back-to back social engagements dance in my head. Add in the responsibilities of our everyday life, and it’s easy to feel like we’re behind before we’ve begun.
By now though, amidst our fifth year of homeschooling, I know better than to let my worries run wild. The magic elixir to calming my nerves is surprisingly simply: deepening into the seasonal rhythms. Biologically speaking, this is how we adapt; it’s how we survive. But it’s also how we can thrive during a season of what feels like unrelenting demands. Rather than squeezing in the cozy and calm between commitments in an exhausting holiday schedule, I aim to slow down for the month of December and savor this moment in time when my children are 11, 9, and 7.
We are rooting out the regularly scheduled program and rooting into something I like to call Cozy Christmas Schooling. It’s the gift of time for connection, to do all the things we never seem to have time for. We’re trading in car mileage for crocheting on the couch, expensive dinner and theater tickets for making homemade soup and handmade decorations. The truth is, we will miss out on things out there. But I have to be willing to let go a little of the ‘what could be’ in order to let the real joy of ‘what is’ in.
So where does one begin in embracing Cozy Christmas Schooling? Ask yourself and your kids what appeals most to your five senses around the holidays. One by one, imagine how you could fill your days with these delights. Write out or draw a scene or two you envision.
Some of mine look like this:
Frosty mornings are spent under a cozy blanket, reading beloved stories by the glow of our wood burning stove.
Little treasures are hand sewn in between nibbles of pumpkin muffins.
Handcrafted gifts are wrapped, homemade playdough sculpted, and gingerbread cookies waft from the oven.
Peanut butter bird feeders are hung during hot chocolate hikes.
Orange slices, cinnamon sticks, and cloves are added to the simmer pot while popcorn and cranberry garland is strung.
Soft Christmas jazz in the morning gives way to classic jingles in the afternoon.
Fresh greenery and fairy lights are wrapped around the banister.
Kite paper stars are folded, and paper snowflakes are cut to create a wintry window scene.
These moments are possible if we say yes to them. Yes to play for the sake of playing. Yes to time for daydreaming and improvising, for books, puzzles, boardgames, and baking. Yes to wrapping our kitchen table in butcher paper to double as a table cloth and magical backdrop to let the crafting, creating, and making be the priority.
The homeschool curriculum will still be there after we’ve had a full month of freedom from the schedule. Time constraints won’t prevent us from experimenting and working on our needle felting with these adorable kitties and mice duo felting kits from Bella Luna Toys. We may even feel renewed as January makes its approach!
This kind of magic is within our reach if we can slow down enough to notice and engage with it. It need not be perfect, and it doesn’t require self-imposed pressures. The only expectation is that you connect to your senses, and let it be a time of rediscovering that twinkle in your own heart only the holidays can bring.
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