Your Christmas Week Appointments
Because the art of romanticizing your life deserves a place in your calendar.
Your Christmas Week Appointments are an invitation to move through the final days of the season with intention and presence—favoring warmth over rush, beauty over excess, and moments that restore rather than perform.
To start out, I want you to close your eyes and picture what a joyful Christmas looks like to you. Not aspirational; not what your to-do list says. What your heart actually craves in the last week of this season. When you plan out your week or field invitations, come back to this vision and reach for those things which serve it.
Your Christmas Week Appointments
1). Go to a book store (in person!). Purchase a festive novel after exploring the stacks for someone you love.
2). Watch Home Alone 2 while eating ice cream in a Plaza-approved glass dish. Have another scoop—you’re not driving!
3). Bookmark these playlists for your every mood this week:
4). Bake gingerbread men and have a cookie decorating competition with your family.
5). Bring fresh evergreens inside from your backyard.
6). Make a cozy brie bake for pre-dinner savory snacking or post-meal sweet satiation.
7). Wrap the final gifts with White Christmas playing and a mug of hot coca (don’t skip the whipped cream!).
8). Have a handful of cozy books or magazines collected for slow afternoon lounging.
9). Put a simmer pot on the stove (orange slices, cranberries, cinnamon sticks, cloves).
10). Have everyone leave their phones in a basket or cupboard, and gather for a game of cards or mahjong while festive tunes or films play in the background.
11) . Start the grocery list note on your phone and share it with your family for live editing. Accept that you will go back to the store twice a day for forgotten butter, extra eggs, and “just one more thing.”
12). Borrow something to wear from whoever you’re staying with: your mom’s cashmere sweater, your grandmother’s brooch, your brother’s hockey jersey. Sentimental layering this week is encouraged.
13). Shut down food-shaming talk with holiday-approved redirects:
“It’s Christmas—we’re enjoying ourselves!”
“What is the your favorite {movie, book, television show, podcast, etc.} you consumed this year?”
14). At the dinner table, ask everyone to share their favorite Christmas gift they have ever received.
This is a tradition I’ve started with my family, and I adore hearing all the stories and ways our answers change as the years go by.
15). Change into cozy pajamas as the sun sets one evening and start a movie marathon.
16). Also stay in your pajamas as long as possible—preferably until noon or beyond.
17). Go for your final shopping jaunt and a festive lunch to get out of the house on December 23. Pick a district that has options that are cozy, slightly elevated, and boozy. Wear velvet and turtlenecks.
18). Reach out to someone having a hard season. If you don’t know what to say, send this:
“Thinking of you this week and sending extra love. No pressure to reply—just wanted you to know you’re not alone.”
19). Whip up a batched cocktail for an effortless libation station.
20). Keep a fire burning in the hearth at all times.
21). Gather your Christmas morning necessities: cinnamon rolls, bacon, champagne, strawberries, coffee.
22). Eat Christmas cookies for breakfast!
23). At some point, step outside late at night, breathe in the cold air, and let yourself feel the quiet magic of Christmas.
24). Watch It’s a Wonderful Life as everyone settles in from the bustle and buzz for the evening. Close your eyes and give thanks for the beautiful life you have before you. Remember that you are so important to this world.
