My family has been on a journey, of simplifying Christmas. We have spent too many years with ideals of what a perfect Christmas should look like and many holidays with stress and tension because the circumstances and the people weren’t perfect, like our ideals. It is easy to get caught up in making sure that we fulfill all of our Christmas traditions and participate in all of the festivities. It becomes “normal” to spend the season stressed out and irritated with those that mean the most to us.