Why I break for Christmas (and I think you should too)

At the time you’re reading this, it’s the last working week before Christmas here at Selling from the Heart HQ.

We always close the office for a couple of weeks over the the Christmas holiday period.  We’ll be putting the “out of office” on the inbox and the phone service, and going off to have some genuine down time to rest up and recharge our batteries, ready to do our best work in the year ahead.

(However we do maintain daily email inbox cover members of Business from the Heart who might be working on their business over the holiday period.  But for everything else we are “Closed”!).

Taking Christmas “fully off” is something that I’ve done for many years now, and it’s become a really important part of my business cycle.

Could it be that it needs to be an important part of your business cycle too?

Scroll down to read more

**The video was recorded a number of years ago so it’s not up to date – but most of what I say in it is just as relevant today**

I don’t just close the office — I take a proper break:

I typically like to take 2 weeks off, and then I use the first week of January as a “behind the scenes” and more reflective week where I do my planning for the year ahead, rather than getting fully stuck into business as usual.

Most years I go abroad for a spot of winter sun (it’s also much easier to switch off completely when I’m thousands of miles from my home office!!!).   This year I’m staying at home to continue to focus on my health & healing, rest, potter at home, get some home chores done, spend time with family and going for lovely walks.
Sometimes I stay away right through the Christmas period, other times I go away for a week in the lead up to Christmas, then spend the rest of the festive period with family, pottering quietly at home and going for lovely walks.

Oh, and my birthday falls in between Christmas and New Year too, so that needs celebrating too!

Here’s why I take a proper break:

1.   The most important reason of all… 

I put a lot of myself into running my business and serving my clients, and for every occasion that you see me doing something “outwards facing” whether creating a video or blog like this, hosting a mentoring call, or running a launch to enrol new people in my course or membership, I’ve got an equal amount of work to do behind the scenes keeping the “back end” of things running.

But we don’t serve our clients by working flat out to support them all the time.

We also serve our clients by being well rested and being at our very best.

In my case, most of what I do in my business that I get paid for comes under the heading of mentoring and teaching. In other words, using my brain.  So my entire business depends on me not being so frazzled and exhausted that I can’t string a sentence together, give a client feedback on a complex sales process, or tap into my intuition to get a sense of the best next step for someone.

So regular extended periods of genuine down-time are an essential to my work (you could even consider proper breaks a “part” of my work).

And Christmas is the one time of year when it’s really easy for me to down tools and switch off completely. It’s also generally considered acceptable to close the office during this period which isn’t so easy to do at other times of year.

2. My team need a break

I have three wonderful people who support me in my business. Because I run launches there are several super intense and busy periods throughout the year. And because I’m a Star Profile in Wealth Dynamics I do often ask them for things at unreasonably short notice (though I’m infinitely better at this than I used to be).

So because at times I do ask a lot of them, and some of them are also juggling other clients, they also need a time each year where they can catch their breath and recharge their batteries. They don’t all take the full 2 weeks off (it’s very much up to them when they take their holidays) but I certainly encourage them to, and my closing the office makes it that bit easier for them to down tools completely and take a decent break.

3. We can all switch off completely

We do of course, all take breaks and holidays at other times of the year.   But the reality it’s not “quite” so easy to switch off completely at other times of the year and I don’t think I’ve ever had a summer break where I haven’t had at least some work related tasks – and more than once I’ve cut a trip short by a couple days to take up a “too good to miss” speaking opportunity.   Two years ago I spent the last day of my holiday tucked away in my campervan on a campsite pulling a presentation together, then drove home early to present to an online audience of 1200!   It’s just all too easy to have a sneaky check at the inbox, pop into the Facebook Group, or just do a couple of things here and there, when the rest of the world isn’t on holiday too.

4.  Our clients are mostly away

This might not be the case for you, but in my business most of my clients are also taking time off at this time of year. From about mid-December our Facebook groups get very quiet and customer emails are few and far between. So if we kept things fully manned (or womanned in our case) there wouldn’t be a huge amount to do anyway, so it makes sense to grab the quiet time and use it to switch off.

But it wasn’t always like this

I’m not going to pretend I’m some sort of a Christmas holiday saint. This long break over Christmas is something that I’ve come to see as absolutely essential for me to rest up fully and recharge my batteries ready for the year ahead. But in the earlier days of my business I often “officially” closed the office then stayed home alone over Christmas and hunkered down to work on my business without interruption.

But I can see now that that didn’t serve me. It felt good at the time to get on top of things and get a head start on the year, but the result of not having a proper break meant that by spring I was already running on empty. I now find that I come back so refreshed after a long Christmas break that it keeps me going right up until I take another long break in the summer. It really is best for me, best for my clients and best for my business.

What about you?

Will you be taking a decent — and well deserved —  break over Christmas? Or just the statutory holidays? If it’s the latter, I’d love encourage you to consider taking at least 1 full weeks complete break from work. Especially if you are the sort of person who never quite switches off. You will be amazed at just how rested and clear thinking you will be when you return.

So the message today:
Take a lovely long break over Christmas and don’t feel guilty- because it’s actually the best thing you could do for your clients and your business. Spend time with friends, family and loved ones, sleep in until late morning, take long walks, watch movies and read fiction books, or hop on a flight to somewhere warmer. (Just try not to overindulge too much on unhealthy food and drink or you could come back feeling like you haven’t had a break because your body is struggling to process it all!). Instead fully absorb yourself in nurturing and taking care of yourself in ways that are genuinely good for you.

Trust me — your business — and most of all your clients — will thank you for it!

I’ll be back to business in the New Year but in the meantime, I wish you and your loved ones a wonderful Christmas and a great start to the New Year.

What will you be doing over Christmas?  Working to get a head start on 2026, going away for a holiday, or switching off from business to spend time with loved ones, or taking some quiet nurturing alone time for yourself? Let me know in the comments!

With love,