How to Spiritually Prepare Your Family for the Upcoming Holiday Season

The holidays are a spiritual time, and some families like to prepare for this aspect of the season. Yom Kippur, All Saints Day, Thanksgiving, Christmas, and so forth all have spiritual origins, aspects, or elements.

Here are some tips for spiritual preparation for the upcoming holidays.

Practice Hospitality

Being hospitable and opening your home to others is a way to promote friendship and feelings of peace in your guests, friends, and family. It’s a good way to meet new people and extend a helping hand to those who may not have family with whom they can celebrate the holidays.

Being hospitable prepares you for the spirit of the holidays, too – it’s a way to give of your time and space, and the holidays are about giving.

Peaceful Home

When you decorate for the holidays, consider the feelings invoked with your decorations. In your doorway, consider hanging a framed blessing or spiritual saying.

Create a sense of peace by avoiding noisy, moving decorations and gaudy lights, and instead decorate simply and with ornaments and items that have personal meaning.

Pray and/or Meditate

Some spiritually-minded people like to pray over and through their entire house before the holiday season. Others pray or meditate to prepare their heart and get in the right mindset for the holidays.

Fast

Many religious cultures fast, or abstain from food for a period of time, as part of their religious observance. Fasting can help you prepare your heart and mind as you focus on spiritual matters and overcome your desire for food.

It might help prevent holiday-time overeating, too – discipline is considered as much a spiritual matter as a physical one.

Follow Examples

For holidays like All Saints Day, you can prepare your spirit by following the example of a particular saint. You could volunteer at an animal shelter in honor of St. Francis, for instance, or engage in other acts of service reminiscent of certain saints.

Remember, All Saints Day was enacted to remember the lesser-known or unknown saints in history, so by following a saintly example you are spiritually a part of the celebration.

Cultivate Gratitude and Thanksgiving

During the Thanksgiving season, many people forget the spiritual aspect of the holiday. Gratitude and thankfulness are considered spiritual aspects of a person’s character, and cultivating these important traits is a good way to prepare for the holidays.

Give to Charity

Giving is a significant part of the holiday spirit. Giving to people who can’t give anything back is particularly appropriate for the season. Donate time, money, or items to your favorite charity in a spiritual gesture of goodwill.

The Real Meaning of Christmas

While the spiritual underpinnings of Thanksgiving are sometimes debated, the spiritual meaning of Christmas is generally accepted.

Focus on the true meaning of Christmas and its spiritual implications, and incorporate that aspect of it into your home and family festivities.

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