Bringing Back the Christmas Magic: A Realistic Guide for Adults

Christmas often stops feeling special once we become adults. Work, routines, and general life chaos creep in, and suddenly it doesn’t hit the same. This guide is all about simple, realistic things you can do to bring the festive feeling back, even if you’re overwhelmed or not in the mood yet.

I’m sure I’m not alone in this. Christmas just hasn’t felt the same in recent years, and as someone who normally finds an absurd amount of joy in the holiday season, this has been eating at me. If you relate, you’ll understand exactly why I’m taking matters into my own hands this year and refusing to let another December slip past unnoticed.

So here’s what I’m doing to make sure I’m bringing the Christmas spirit back into my home and my headspace.

Step 1: Make a list of all the things you want to do

It’s so easy to say you’ll do fun festive things, but trust me, you’ll put them off. Suddenly it’s two days before Christmas and you’re wondering where the month went. Not this time.

Here’s what I want to do this holiday season:

Go to a garden centre and get cute stuff
Go to a German Christmas market
Watch Christmas movies (minimum 6)
Set up the tree
Decorate the house, inside and out
Bake cookies
Decorate cookies
Christmas dinner with friends
Christmas dinner with family
Christmas date night
Winter forest walk
Bake traditional Romanian goodies (because I’m a Romanian living in the Netherlands)
Make DIY ornaments
Have a sleep over on the couch next to the Christmas tree
Game night with hot cocoa and Christmas treats
Get a new quirky tree ornament (yearly tradition with boyfriend)
Enjoy a crisp Coke from a glass bottle (very niche but IYKYK)

Some of these may seem silly to list out, but I highly recommend doing it. It makes step 2 so much easier.

Step 2: Plan everything

Now that you’ve got your list, it’s time to schedule it. I like to block out whole evenings or whole days for things that can’t be rushed, and then sprinkle the smaller activities wherever they fit.

For example, putting up and decorating the tree may take me 2 to 6 hours (please don’t judge), so that gets its own Saturday afternoon. A Christmas market also gets its own day because I want to wander around like an enchanted little creature, not sprint through it. But watching a Christmas movie? Easy to quantify, so I slot those into a weeknight or a slow Sunday morning.

So grab a paper calendar or open the digital one and start adding your activities in. When the day comes, you’ll already be primed for something Christmassy and your brain will be ready to receive the joy.

Step 3: Avoid the biggest trap - leaving things to chance

If you make a list and stop there, time will slip away. As an adult, things like baking cookies can feel trivial if you don’t treat them like the non-negotiables they actually are. If you don’t plan them, they’ll get shoved to the end of the queue where time and energy simply don’t exist anymore.

But when you schedule them, your brain quietly rearranges your week to make room. It’s not a dramatic conscious process, but it works.

So don’t leave things to chance. Plan them now. You can always move things around if life intervenes, but at least give yourself “appointments” you can realistically keep.

Step 4: Don’t go overboard

I love Christmas as much as anyone, but I also have a job, friends, family, a boyfriend, and many goals and hobbies. These will naturally always take priority.

So I had to decide what I genuinely wanted to do this winter and what was simply a cute idea. The Christmas market? Non-negotiable. Christmas karaoke night? Fun, but not essential for me personally, so it didn’t make the list. Yours might look different, it just depends on what makes you feel festive.

That said, I’ll also argue for filling your schedule more than usual. I want to stretch the holiday feeling for as long as possible, which means doing something festive every week, sometimes twice. When your routine is gently shaken up, your brain forms more vivid memories, and the whole season feels longer and richer, even though the calendar says otherwise. Just make sure to keep a healthy balance.