4 Tips For Serving Your Families Better This Holiday Season

The holiday season is here.

That means it’s a busy time for most of us, but especially for funeral professionals

One of the greatest things to do during this season is to focus on what’s most important: SERVICE.

So, we decided to focus on just that in this blog.

We find that the more you focus on what’s important, the more easily busy times move along, from now, through the New Year.

Here are 4 ways to better service your families this holiday season:

 

#1: Take better care of yourself.

You can’t serve anyone better unless you’re taking great care of yourself. What does your self care routine look like? Do you have one? If not, you’re pretty much destined for burnout, so tend to yourself now before it’s too late and you’re cashed out.

There’s this idea that the more we take care of ourselves, the less time we have to serve others. In fact, the opposite is true. If you don’t believe us, please indulge in one of these many articles proving otherwise:

If all the best business blogs & leaders out there are preaching it, we can’t be making stuff up. You have to believe in the power of self care.

Some simple ideas to get you started with self care routines:

  • Create a “Do Not Disturb” schedule on your phone for all non-necessary calls, texts & notifications. You can do this with the “Sleep” mode on iPhones, where you can no longer receive notifications from social media and other apps distracting your self care & rest. 
  • Avoid social media in the evenings, mornings and weekends. I recommend turning off social media from 8pm until 8am daily, so that you have time to restfully go to bed and restfully wake up in the mornings.
  • Give yourself some time in the mornings and evenings to care for yourself. Take as little as 5 minutes to stretch, make tea, sit in the sun or go for a walk in the mornings. And in the evenings, take that same time to wind down and do something you love to do that’s not productive, like reading or meditating.
  • Exercise daily. Even if it’s a walk around the block or a 5 minute jog, anything counts. Your body will hold onto stress if you don’t move it, making you feel like absolute crap daily!

We hope these simple, easy & short routines are enough to inspire you to get started on your self care routines!

 

#2: Bring the holidays into the service & how you support your families

Death during the holidays sucks. No one is here to deny that. However, instead of ignoring the fact that it’s the holidays to not “rub it in” for families, what if you did the opposite? What if you brought the holiday rituals and traditions into the service? This would certainly make for an unforgettable holiday service, don’t you think?

Let’s consider some examples:

  • Bringing holiday recipes into the food mix
  • Doing a holiday ritual to celebrate the loved one such as a gift exchange
  • Watching the loved one’s favorite holiday movie as a family after the service or even during it
  • Playing the loved one’s favorite holiday songs during the service

As you can see, we don’t have to be ashamed of the fact that the death occurred during the holidays. We can invite in the spirit of the holiday season into the service and beyond!

 

#3: Host a holiday celebration for those grieving at your funeral home

There are some folks who are alone this holiday season because they’ve lost their loved one in the last year. There are others who will feel alienated because of their holiday related grief. And we can count on the fact that there are many more variations of alienation, loneliness and grief during the holidays because of loss. 

So why not support your families who are going through those feelings? Create a holiday celebration, complete with food, for those who are grieving during the holidays. This will give folks a chance to connect around their grief and also not feel like they’re the only ones sad during the holidays! 

 

#4: Spread Holiday cheer

This one sounds like an obvious tip, but sometimes funeral professionals can certainly feel a little like Scrooge with how busy you are during the holiday season! For yourself, and everyone you support, give yourself a celebrator event to spread some holiday cheer.

Here are some ways you can spread holiday cheer this year:

  • Send out Holiday cards to all of your client families
  • Send out Christmas cookies to families you served in the last month (there are some wonderful, kind hearted folks out there who would love to help or you can hire a catering company to help)
  • Have a Holiday Tree lighting ceremony
  • Host a holiday celebration of your own 
  • Decorate your funeral home in very uplifting, festive way
  • Set up a Secret Santa gift exchange with grieving families

Those are just some ideas to get you started, but I’m certain you have come up with your own holiday traditions by now. So lean on them, and don’t let “busy” get in the way of your very important holiday cheer!

 

How will you celebrate the holidays and serve your families this holiday season at your funeral home? Tell us in the comments below!

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