How to Give Presence During the Holiday Season

Remembering back on my own childhood, the actual presents fade into the background and the sights, scents and sounds come flooding in as memories.  The holiday Season can become so focussed on presents that presence is quite frankly forgotten.

I took the time to sit with my own happy memories and added them to what a group of children told me.   Here are 12 secrets keys to a child’s heart and maybe yours too! Not one costs more than your presence.  Happy Holidays- Love  Michele

Presence

I just love to just snuggle.  I want to lay on my Mum’s heart and hear it beat. Her nightgown is soft.

I love baking together.  I don’t always know how to read it all but I like putting the cookies on the tray and licking the batter.

My best is going with my parents to the tree farm and taking our time while we pick out a tree.  They have hot chocolate there too and it smells so good.

I like it when we sing carols and songs around the piano.  My Mom lets us take turns and we each play. My Dad plays by ear and only knows one or two songs but that is okay.

We lay by the fire and give each other foot massages.

I like to play in the snow with the whole family.  We build lots of stuff, get cold and then go in and warm up.

I love wrapping time.  I get my Dad all to myself and he shows me how to get the corners straight and the tape on right.  We talk about how excited everyone will be.

We go for drives and look at all the pretty lights.  We live by the water so I can see the reflections.

We have a big tub of special holiday books we keep on a shelf in the cupboard.  We bring them out and snuggle up.  I love reading them every year.

For me it is being with the whole big family.  I get to see my cousins, aunts and uncles and best of all my grandparents.  Everyone is laughing a lot.

My Grandma makes the same cookies every year and I know it is special.  I feel so happy to eat them.  

I like all the candles.  We just sit in the light and they twinkle.

• For another classroom lesson on wiring happy memories into the brain and evoking happy memories, please click here.