How are you spending Christmas this year?
Christmas is only a few weeks away now – and today we are going to talk about how to organize Christmas Day. If you have parenting orders in place then this may not be relevant for you but if you don’t have orders in place then here are some options for you to consider when organizing your children’s Christmas Day.
Option 1 – Alternating Christmas Day
Alternating Christmas Day means just that. One year you will have Christmas and the next year you won’t. This works especially well when there are long distances involved or there is high conflict.
Option 2 – Splitting Christmas Day
If you live close to each other and your conflict is at a manageable level then this may be a great option for your children. Splitting Christmas Day means that one of you has the opportunity to wake up with the children on Christmas morning and the other will see them to bed on Christmas night with changeover usually taking place around lunch time. For most families this will then be reversed on a year about basis but this doesn’t always occur. For example – you may always have a big Christmas lunch/dinner with your family in which case you and your ex may agree that you forgo Christmas morning each year so that your children always get to celebrate this with you.
The important thing when you are discussing what will happen at Christmas is to remember that you have to think about the children and not what will make it easier for each of you. What would they like to do? Do you have children who don’t want to go to multiple places and just want to spend Christmas Day at home with their presents? Would they like to see each of you on the same day? Always try to limit the amount of time that the children spend in the car and the number of changeovers. The children want to enjoy Christmas day and this is about them.
We have more detail regarding this in our free e book which you can find on our homepage.
For each of you though I wish you all a safe and merry Christmas!