026: Mindful Holiday Creativity

Sometimes the holiday season can turn into an overwhelming, stressful blur before we even realize it! It doesn’t HAVE to be that way.
In this episode, I am talking about how to make creativity more enjoyable during the holiday season. Whether you’re putting together gingerbread houses, creating holiday gift tags or crafting up some holiday advent calendars, you’ll want to hear the tips and ideas shared in this episode.
You’ll also find out why you need to ditch perfectionism and why you don’t have to love a holiday activity (as long as you enjoy the reason you’re partaking in it).
What you’ll find in this episode:
A segment on what I’m currently creating
How to make the moments of creativity more enjoyable
Fun creative projects you could do this holiday season
Why you don’t have to LOVE the activity if you enjoy the reason behind it
How perfection can ruin the joy of an activity
Why you should pay attention to your thoughts during the holidays
Read the transcript of the episode below:
 Episode 26 - Mindful Holiday Creativity

Sometimes the holidays can turn into a stressful blur before we even realize it, but it doesn't have to be that way. This is Episode 26: Mindful Holiday Creativity.

Welcome to the Committed to Create Podcast. I'm Lisa Funk, and I am so excited to hang out with you here as we talk about the power of creating with our hands and our minds. I like to keep it real, remind you that you are not alone, and share specific ways that creativity and mindfulness can help us live even more meaningful and joyful lives.

I am so glad that you're here.

Hello, and welcome back to the podcast, my friend. I'm so glad that you are hanging out at my house on my big blue couch. Right now, there are a bunch of Christmas decorations hanging up and strewed about. I have a two year old, so who knows what might be all over the place? We celebrate Christmas, so those are the holiday decorations that we have up.

And so it's a little extra festive this time while you're at my house. And I'm just so glad that you're here. Before we get started with today's topic, I wanted to do a segment currently creating.

So as you know, I like to talk a lot about how even just a few minutes of creativity can make a huge difference. And when we're mindful about it all the better. Right? And so I think that it's really helpful to share sometimes what we are doing and how we are incorporating that so that people can get ideas.

I love seeing what other people are doing, because it just gives me ideas, simple things like Ralphie from simply on purpose, she does a parenting Instagram. She talked about doing a candy cane hunt. And I was like, oh, that sounds like fun. And I'm like, how do you do that? Is it in your house? Is it outside?

And I guess you can do it however it works for you. But I was like, that is a great idea, but I wouldn't have ever known about it if she wouldn't have shared just a simple thing that she does, that kind of brings some magic to Christmas without any real prep. It's not complicated. So you better believe that I added some candy canes to my grocery order this week, and I'm going to get, do a candy cane hunt with my kids.

I'm going to do it in our backyard because it's Arizona. And it's like our best time of the year. Weather-wise, it's beautiful and we can be outside easily. So we're going to do a candy cane hunt in the backyard. And I'm really excited because we've never done that before. That isn't even what I was planning to talk about in this segment.

But the point is that sometimes when people share what they are doing, it's really helpful to see. So I wanted to talk about today for what I do for creativity on a daily basis.

One thing that I do is journaling. A little bit of journaling. I answer some prompts every day. They're actually part of something called the Best Today Guide. It's just a way that I do my planning. And there are three questions that I answer every day. One is about kind of free writing and thinking about what I want my day to be like. Another one is about the distractions that I want to avoid throughout the day. And then another prompt is about the vision that I have for the future.

And just writing that down every day. It's really simple. It's only one page. It doesn't take me very long, but it is a way for me to be creative in the way that I'm thinking about what I want to create that day. And also what I want to create for the future.

And thinking every day about what I want my future to be like helps me to remember that the things I have on my to-do list today, I want those to be things that coincide with the vision that I have for my life and with my family.

This isn't something that takes very long. It's really simple, but it helps me to be creative because I'm writing, I'm using my hand, I'm got pen and paper and I'm writing my thoughts. Of course, you could do this typing or on your phone too, but it helps me to think and really create what I want to experience that day.

And then I also try to take some time to meditate and to be still. And even if it's just a few deep breaths, I find that it makes a big difference. So you don't have to have any special guide or planner or journal. You can grab a sheet of paper. I also love using our new spiral lettering notebooks, where I can just kind of doodle and journal and free write and just have a moment.

And again, it's just like one page. It doesn't need to be 30 minutes of journaling and it doesn't have to be something that you even keep. But I have found that the past few months that I have been very consistent about journaling and using these prompts every day, that it's made a big difference for me.

And I really love it. So I don't know if that might be helpful for someone, but I know that for me, it helps to just hear what's working for other people in case that's something that I want to try. And that is our segment for today.

All right. So today our topic is Mindful Holiday Creativity. So I think that a lot of us have traditions of creating, maybe doing crafts or other decorations, or maybe it's that we're making centerpieces or creating gifts, things like that. And so I think that it's very common to associate some level of creating or creativity with the holidays, but it isn't always necessarily a relaxing experience or a super enjoyable. Sometimes it can be stressful or overwhelming. And that's why I wanted to talk today about mindful holiday creativity, how we can enjoy these moments of creativity during the holidays even more.

One of the reasons why I think mindful creativity can be so nice during the holidays is because we do have a lot on our plate. During the holidays where we have these lists of things that we want to get done. And it's kind of like this constant whirling in the back of our mind, even if we're not currently working on it, it's still back there.

It's still like, oh wait, but don't forget about that gift or, oh, don't forget about how you normally do this for your neighbor, or what about that tradition that your kids are really gonna miss if you forget to do it. There's kind of this like little hum of activity in our brains all the time I feel like during the holidays, and it doesn't have to be that way, but I think it's fairly common for us to feel that way.

And so if we can figure out how to incorporate some mindful holiday creativity, I think that it can help us to put that list aside put kind of the pressure of the to do's aside for a bit, and to really focus and enjoy being present in the midst of the season.

Using our five senses to bring awareness to what we're experiencing is always super helpful.

And I think there are a lot of really special crafts and creative projects that we can do that can be really meaningful and also provide that moment of stillness and focus and presence. So I'm going to give some ideas of some different crafts or creative projects that we can do. And I'm also going to talk a little bit about how to make sure that they are enjoyable and not adding more stress.

The first one is holiday place cards. And even if you're just having dinner with your own little family or with one other person, creating a little place card can be really special. And honestly, sometimes it's easier to create the place cards when it's not a huge gathering, because you don't have to make as many.

So recently I was able to be a guest or remote zoom guest on Utah's news stations, studio five with Brooke Walker, and they asked if I would create three different ideas for place cards for the holiday. So I used the concept of making little banners, little ribbons as the base for the place cards, and then writing the name inside of course. And I did three different versions. One is really simple that just kind of has the ribbon ends to it. And the other two, one is curved and one kind of is a little bit more of a wave banner. The look of ribbons, kind of behind the banner. It's hard to explain on a podcast, but I do have a blog post all about these banners with videos, showing how I make them.

And then if you want to write the names in them, but you're not super keen on doing the banner part yourself, I also have some free templates of these banners for you in case you want to just print them out, I would recommend printing them on cardstock. But if all you have is regular printer paper, that will be beautiful too.

You can pick the style that you like, print them out and write the names in. Even if you aren't into lettering, you can just write the names really simply. I think that we underestimate how beautiful and special it is to see regular handwriting. Most things are printed these days. And so seeing someone's handwriting, even if we don't think it's that special as that handmade touch, that people really love.

Do you ever see your grandma's handwriting or your mom's or someone else that's special in your life and you think, oh, I just love seeing that because I know whose handwriting that is. And it's so special. I know that when I'm getting the mail in December and I'm receiving Christmas cards, which I love receiving so much, there are some friends that I just know they're handwriting and as soon as I see it, it just, I don't know. I feel like I release endorphins or something. Like it's just like this really feel good moment of seeing someone's hand writing. And that is why I love handwriting. And that's why I love lettering. It's so special.

So if you want a really simple way to make place cards, head to this blog post, I'm going to link to it in the show notes.

It's on our blog, at hand letter design, and it's all about place cards. And it will have each of those videos that are going to show you how to make them. But then again, like I said, if you don't want to draw the banners yourself, you can just print them out, fill in the names. And then just use some scissors.

I like to leave a little bit of a white border around the edge when I'm cutting out around the banner, and then you can set them on top of the napkin on the plate. You can add a little detail, like a candy cane or some greenery, and kind of set the banner inside of it. You'll see some ideas on the blog as well.

And one way to make a project like this more mindful, of course, just doing something creative can be really mindful when you are present, and you're kind of letting all the other worries and stress fall to the side. And you're focusing on the strokes and drawing and writing, that in and of itself is mindful.

There's another level of meaning that we can add to this creative project. When we really take a moment to think about each person's name and each person as we are writing their names in these place cards, it might sound cheesy, but it really can be a special moment to think about how much we love them. Think about how grateful we are for them. Think about how happy we are that they get to be at the table with us this season.

And this is the same with gift tags. When we are creating gift tags, I love to do homemade gift tags, whether you're using a label like a blank label, or whether you're using some card stock and you're going to punch a hole in it, write the name on and then tie it around the gift, or you're even just writing, you know, maybe you're doing some fancy lettering on a pre-made gift tag. I think that it can be a fun way to spruce up your presents.

In my family, growing up a really fun tradition that we had was to write kind of like secret code names on our Christmas gift tags. So it wasn't necessarily something that people weren't supposed to be able to figure out it was just a little fun way to maybe write someone's nickname. My mom would often write something simple, like to our third grade, wonder from your adoring parents or things like that.

Sometimes it's initials. Sometimes it's an inside joke. Sometimes it has to do with a certain sport or something that the person is interested in. Sometimes it would give a nod to the gift inside. But often not, it was just a fun way to kind of add another level of fun and whimsy to the holidays. And this is a tradition that I have continued with my family and my kids love it.

And I have to say, my husband is way better at this than me. I am always amazed every year at the fun little names that he comes up with as he is writing on the gift tags.

Another creative project that a lot of us are doing during the holidays where we can have this moment that's mindful and also where we are thinking about people that we love is addressing envelopes for holiday cards. And, you know, a lot of people just print out labels or print the names onto the envelopes. And there's nothing wrong with that. But addressing holiday card envelopes has been something I've always loved.

It's something that I used to beg my mom to do when I was very young. And it's something that. I still really enjoy doing. We sell a holiday pen set in the shop that has three different color brush pens, green, red, and black. And then we also have a bullet tip gold metallic marker that comes in that holiday set.

And that is what I love to use to address envelopes. So if you are interested in doing some fun lettering on your envelopes this year, and you don't already have some markers or pens head over to the shop, if we still have some left, you need to get this holiday set of markers. It's really fun.

I will pick one color to use for the name. I will pick another marker to use for the address, like the first line of the address, and then another color to use for the second line of the address and the fourth color, or maybe repeating one of the first three colors for the zip code. And I like to write the zip code kind of bigger or on its own as a line all on its own at the bottom and kind of spread it across the envelope. I think it looks really fun and beautiful.

And you just want to make sure that you kind of put the first and last numbers, that's just how I do it, I put the first and last numbers, then I put the number in the middle cause there's five, so it's an odd, they're odd numbers. So I do the two on the ends, the one in the middle, and then I fill in with the second and fourth numbers. And so it kind of makes it easy to space them out. If that doesn't make sense, head over to Instagram, I will do a post where I show what I'm talking about, but I love using that holiday set.

And again, I love just taking that moment to think about each person as I'm writing on those cards. My list of holiday cards is not super long, but it's just people that are really special maybe throughout the years, that I have known people that we went to school with, or that we lived by when we were first married or that we've known through different seasons of our lives.

And it's just a fun time to think about all those people who have been really important to us throughout the years as I letter each envelope.

Another fun thing that we can do as a creative project during the holidays is to make some handmade gifts. And if you are into lettering, it can be really fun to maybe make a print for someone, maybe do a wood sign. If you're doing signs, I recommend using a paint pen that will last a lot longer. Some people will find a cool piece of glass, maybe like a glass window or things like that, where you can use a paint pen on those to do some lettering. I, one year did some lettering for my mom on ornaments. She found these really cool, like, chalk board ornaments. And I used a chalk marker to do some lettering on those ornaments for her. By the way, I had no idea how much more challenging it was to write on a round surface. So all of you who are lettering on mugs and things like that regularly, I am majorly impressed, but it is doable.

And how fun to get a mug or something like that, to do some lettering for someone and make a personalized gift. It can be so special because you can do an inside joke. You can personalize something with their name or a quote that's meaningful to them. And again, you are taking that moment to focus and be still and mindful, but you're also thinking about that person that you are making the gift.

I also love creating homemade decorations around Christmas time. Sometimes this is something really simple and other times it can be something more advanced, but I remember seeing my grandma's home filled with amazing homemade decorations. I don't know if any of you have seen these before, but my grandma had used soda cans and painted them to look like choir members singing like the, the opening to the soda can like the drinking opening and she would paint them to look like these little carolers and, oh my gosh, it was just so clever and creative and such a great way to create a fun decoration for her house that I'm sure it didn't cost a ton of money. Cause she was using soda cans and paint. But I remember thinking that it was the coolest thing growing up.

She also created a Christmas tree out of jewels. So like costume jewelry, maybe some old jewelry that she had. And maybe you have seen these, maybe some of you have them or your grandma's had them or your moms, but I loved it so much that it's one of the things I really wanted to have after my grandma passed away.

It also has some little lights from a car, a light, a string of Christmas lights that goes throughout the Christmas tree as well. And it's just so special. And it's something that my grandma put together that is still a really meaningful heirloom to me.

One holiday decoration that I made that I put my heart and soul into was an advent calendar.

Again, my grandma, my, this is my dad's mom. She created these felt advent calendars that now I think are pretty easy to find to purchase, but growing up, they were always handmade. And I don't know that I really saw many besides the one that I had in my house. Where it was, this felt Christmas tree on this hanging.

And then there were pockets that held little felt ornaments that you could stick up on the Velcro for the other days. And it was one of the most special things that I loved being able to put up the ornaments on this felt tree every day, as an advent, leading up to Christmas.

So as an adult after I had had my first baby, I got together with some of my family members to create these advent calendars.

And it took pretty much a week of doing this. We did the felt hanging with the tree on it, and then we spent so much time creating these intricate little felt ornaments that would then hang on the tree. And it was so much fun to make. And I just find it really therapeutic and relaxing to do some of this crafting and so much fun.

And now it is, I'm going to say probably my most prized Christmas decoration, because I love it so much, but also I put so much heart and soul into that beautiful Christmas advent calendar. I often grab those little ornaments, those felt ornaments that I made for that felt Christmas advent calendar and put them in my pictures on Instagram, because I love them so much.

So you may see them over there and maybe I will share a little bit more of this. I am sometimes even nervous to put it up because I don't want my kids to ruin it. I guess they're still really little. So I'm not, I'm not one of those people who won't let my kids touch anything. My kids are mostly allowed to touch anything in my house and, you know, make messes.

And that's not like a concern for me, but this is like I said, something that's really special and I want them to experience it and love it. But also, because I do not want it to be destroyed, so I am very careful and protective of it, but that is, is a homemade decoration that was really fun to create. And that is super meaningful as well.

Another fun, crafty thing that a lot of people do around the holidays is gingerbread houses. And you may be like, wait, you just said fun. Sorry. I feel like gingerbread house making is kind of like, you love it or you hate it. Maybe I did hear someone tell me once that the key is to hot glue the houses together.

Yeah. You can't necessarily eat the hot glue. I mean, not, not, not necessarily. You can't eat the hot glue, but it makes it so that people aren't in tears about the house falling over. And I thought that that was really smart. So that's been a helpful little hack, but doing that can be really stressful or really fun depending on our expectations.

And sometimes we can't help if we're doing it with our kids and they are devastated and sad that it's falling apart, then that can be something that's not very fun. So we have to kind of evaluate what is working for us. And if we have kids what's working for them at the stages that they're at, what ends up being fun, what doesn't. And we don't have to do things that don't work for them.

Another fun creative project that I've mentioned before on Instagram, that was hugely popular was when I shared how I make some ornaments for my Christmas tree, from magnets that I buy when I'm traveling. I love to travel and used to always look for ornaments and it was often hard to find actual ornaments.

And then oftentimes they're really expensive and I don't always have a lot of time to search for souvenirs, or I just don't choose to use a lot of my time when I'm traveling to look for souvenirs. But I love having magnets from the places that we've been. As ornaments, it's just really fun to pull them out every year and remember all the places that we've traveled as we are decorating our Christmas tree.

And so I decided to start buying magnets instead because most of the places that I have visited, it's really easy to find someone who's selling magnets. And oftentimes they're those really darling magnets that have kind of 3d and a little scene and maybe they're even hand painted. And they're often very affordable as well.

So instead of searching high and low for an ornament, that might just be kind of like a round ornament that's not super unique, I started buying these magnets. There were very indicative of the place that we had been and also very affordable. And then when I get home, I turn them into magnets by cutting some twine, making a little loop and just hot gluing it to the back.

It sounds really simple and it is, and it's just been a really fun, easy, affordable way to create ornaments from all of the places that we've visited. So I will be sharing that again on Instagram as well, because that was a huge hit last time I shared about it.

Another way that we can be creative during the holiday season is through service. So my church, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, likes to do a campaign every year called Light the World. And it's non-denominational, it's just a way to do a little bit of service every day. And it's not even the point of it isn't even necessarily to for sure do service every single day.

It's just gives an idea for a simple service that you could do every day through December. And it's called Light the World. And you can find more information at light the world.org and on Instagram, a lot of people will be posting about these different service projects using the hashtag light the world. And I like to get the text alerts because it just gives me an idea each day for something really simple that we can do.

So the first day of December was to maybe donate a little bit to a charity that you love. The second day is to share about someone that's really meaningful to you, that you look up to on social media. These are not really complicated things, but again, I don't necessarily do the prompt every single day, but there are some prompts on there that also includes some creativity.

So one of the days is to make some signs to decorate a neighbor's door who might need some cheering up another day is to write some letters for a local senior center. So those are some ways that you can be creative and do service at the same time. There are so many fun ideas. And if you're interested again, it's for anyone who is interested in having some ideas for service during the holiday season, you can find that at light the world.org.

So something that you want to keep in mind, no matter what creative project you're considering this holiday season is to keep it simple. Do whatever works for you. Don't overdo it, make sure that you streamline the projects that you're doing or streamline the number of projects that you're doing. And really just take a moment to think about why am I doing this?

Do I like my reason for doing this? Are you doing it just because you've always done it? Are you doing it because your family always does it, or your neighbors always do it? If you like the reason why you're doing it, then keep doing it. If you enjoy it, then keep for doing it.

And sometimes we do things that we don't necessarily love doing, but we like our reason for why we do it.

For example, each year, I like to ask my children about one Christmas tradition that they really love doing. Each kid. One thing that they each really love. And so even if I don't necessarily love that things so much, I might be willing to do it because it's the one thing that they remember doing that means a lot to them.

And so even though it's not my favorite, I like my reason for doing it because my reason is to help that child to feel special and to help them have that experience, that's really meaningful for them.

The other thing that we want to do is throw perfection out the window. I am always going to come back to this and talk about it because I know you, I know it's hard. I know that it's hard for both of us to not have things look perfect to not have it look just right. But can you notice how much the need for perfection can bring down the joy in the activity?

When we see our kids, you know, screaming and throwing things away because it doesn't look just right. We're like, no, no, no, no, it's fine.

It's okay. It doesn't need to look perfect. But then sometimes we do the same thing when we're like, oh, dang it, it doesn't look like the picture or, oh, I wanted it to do this. Or, you know, I bought this thing and it doesn't look right. And we may not be throwing a tantrum necessarily in the same way, but we can suck the joy out of some of this creativity when we want it to look perfect.

So we need to remember that the act of creating of being present is what is super fun and often doing it together with the people that we love can be really meaningful. And remember that there's no right or wrong way to do it.

And last but not least, would this be the committed to create at podcast if I didn't talk about paying attention to our thoughts?

Our brains are there to create thoughts. Some of those thoughts help us, some don't, some cause really great feelings, some don't. Most of the time, we're not even aware of the thoughts that our brain is spitting out. And so we want to pay attention to our thoughts during the holidays.

Do we have an idea, a belief that we need to check a certain number of activities off the list in order for it to be a true, real, legit holiday season? Or can we believe that whatever we do is enough and that it can be simple? Can we have those thoughts instead? Can we pay attention to saying things that we want to do instead of things that we need to do or should do? Just changing those simple words and our thoughts make the experience of how we feel so different.

Recently, my friend Ann Cropper was talking on Instagram about how she has five kids and she loves decorating for Christmas and doing fun holiday activities, but that the magic and the mess go hand in hand. It's just how it goes. Especially when you have kids the magic and the mess go hand in hand, and we can embrace that instead of resisting it and fighting against it.

And when we do, and we can just be present in the moment, we are much more likely to enjoy mindful holiday creativity.

I hope this episode has been helpful for you. Maybe giving you some ideas of some fun projects to do, maybe giving you some encouragement of how to let perfection go and be more present and enjoying those creative moments, or maybe some ideas for how to make some of those projects even more meaningful as we really reflect and think about the people that we are making things.

I hope that you are having an amazing holiday season. If you are still interested in buying some gifts for lettering, head over to hand lettered design.com. You can order before December 16th, you will get your packages in time for Christmas. If you are interested in getting a beginner bundle, look for our creative lettering journal.

We also have our guide to mindful lettering bundle. We've got our daily mindful lettering bundle. If you are curious about what each of those things are, head over to the website at hand lettered design.com. You can also send us an email at hello at hand lettered design.com if you have questions about what to start with, what might be right for you or the person that you're buying a gift for.

Don't forget: remember last week's episode. It's okay to buy yourself a Christmas gift!

I am so grateful that you're here. I hope you have an amazing holiday season. If you haven't yet left a review for the podcast, that would be a wonderful holiday gift from you to me. Thank you in advance. And if you've already left a review, I appreciate it so very much.

I hope that you have a wonderful day and I will talk to you again next week.
Links:
Banner Placecard Templates
Lettering for Thanksgiving - Free Placecard Template
Holiday Pens + CardStock Bundle
Light the World
Creative Lettering Journal Bundle
Daily Mindful Lettering Book
Ready for a fun activity to feel less stress? Come get our FREE Guide - 5 Creative Steps to Less Stress & More Joy while it's still available!
I hope that my podcast has left you feeling inspired and excited to create the life that you want. If you’ve enjoyed listening to this podcast, I’d love for you to subscribe so you can continue to hear more. Want to get to know me better? Connect with me on my website or on Instagram to keep up with everything that is going on with me and my business.
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Jennifer L. IN LOVE!! What a perfect idea! I am a plant mama too, like Lisa. I also manage a great deal of anxiety. I got into lettering a couple years ago as a creative outlet and discovered a multitude of treasures in the lettering community! This book that Lisa created with her daughter is just perfection! It's all the feels for me! Thank you both!!!
Cinthanie C. EXCELLENT BOOK! I really enjoy taking a minute each day to slow down and apply my hand to something that is not only emotionally supportive but relaxing and fun to do!! The mantras for everyday are very helpful for me. Thank you for your work and bringing such a high quality product into my life!
Daily Mindful Lettering Kit: Live With Love

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026: Mindful Holiday Creativity

Podcast

046: Removing the Pressure

045: Creative Constraint
