Many books will tell you how to have a more sustainable or thrify Christmas. But there aren’t many that ask you to evaluate your celebrations as fundamentally as Beth Kempton’s Calm Christmas does.
Calm Christmas came out in 2019 (so I’m a little bit late to the party) and it was the stylishly minimal cover that appealed to me. Yes, I judged a book by its cover and yes, I will do it again. Here the minimalist black cover sells the trimmed-down Christmas that the writer is promoting.
The book is split into three parts; Part 1 Before Christmas, Part 2 During Christmas and Part 3 After Christmas. Each section is filled with ideas, questions and suggestions to help you navigate the three phases of Christmas.
Part One begins with the “five stories of Christmas”. Each story represents a different value – the story of faith, the story of magic, the story of connection, the story of abundance and the story of heritage. After reading these stories, we, the readers, are given a table to fill out and rank how much each story (and value) means to us. Now that we know what aspects of Christmas matter most to us, we can tailor our celebrations to suit our values.
Part Two offers advice on gift shopping, writing cards, hosting parties and hosting guests. Many of the suggestions involve simplifying and shrinking your Christmas. Beth advises that you stick to a budget when shopping and reduce the number of people you buy presents for. Similarly, whittle down your invite list and Christmas cards list. She also advises that you seek help with things when needed and let guests know if there are certain topics to be avoided to prevent conflict.
Part Three is the ‘after-Christmas’ stage and takes place in the “Hush” or “Twixtmas”. This is the strange period between Christmas Day and New Year’s Day where time has little meaning. Beth suggests that this be used for reflecting on the past year, both good and bad, and making plans for the New Year. However, we don’t need to make News Years Resolutions as these often lead to disappointment. Instead, we can take our time to determine what our dream is and take small steps to get reach it.
So, did I enjoy this book? Yes, absolutely. Will it work in my everyday life? Probably not.
Like most self-help/ wellness books, not every piece of advice will work for you. There is a small section about spirit animals that does absolutely nothing for me. Nor does the section on planning your life according to the seasons. There is also a lot of generic advice such as ‘eat well’, ‘spend time outdoors’, and ‘make time for loved ones’. This is excellent advice but not particularly new advice.
The other issue I have is that I don’t know if this advice works in practice, though this may say more about me than the book. Most people, I think, would struggle with cutting down the invite list to only the closest friends and family, or telling guests certain topics are off-limits.
But I like a lot of the advice too and I will try to simplify my Christmas in some of these ways. And I think the section on dealing with grief, loss or loneliness should be essential reading for everyone. I also appreciate Beth’s attitude towards New Year’s Resolutions and I like her alternative take on them. Smaller steps towards a carefully considered dream does seem much more feasible than a strict set of actions that must start in January.
Overall, I enjoyed this book. Not all of it worked for me, and I didn’t find anything revolutionary. But it is very readable, it is littered with charming anecdotes, there are questions throughout to guide you and a lot of the advice is very doable. So, yes, read this book, plan your meaningful Christmas and let me know how you get on.
Resources
Beth Kempton, Calm Christmas, Piatkus Books, United Kingdom. 2019.
She Kept Christmas 