Heart of the Season: The Story
Every year, as December draws closer, I feel a little whisper inside me.
A gentle tug toward something slower, softer, more heart-led than the Christmas we see everywhere. Amid the noise and pressure of the season, there has always been a part of me longing for a version of Christmas that feels grounded in meaning rather than consumption. A version where connection matters more than checking off lists, and where magic is something we create with our hands and hearts rather than something we buy.
The consumer-driven side of Christmas has never sat comfortably in my body. I have watched the way the season pushes people to rush, overspend, and overstretch themselves, especially parents who feel pressure to give their children “more.” But as any parent knows deep down, children rarely ask for more things. They ask for more presence. More attention. More moments where we actually see them.
And yet… there is something undeniably beautiful about this time of year too.
There is a moment, a collective one, where people across the world believe in something magical together. We believe in Santa. In wonder. In possibility. In the idea that kindness can travel across the sky in the middle of the night and land at our feet like a gift.
That collective belief gave me hope.
Because if we can all believe in Santa together, even for a short while, imagine what we could believe in if we moved in unison the whole year through. Imagine what we could create if we returned to that shared sense of magic on ordinary days.
This is where Heart of the Season began.
I wanted to create something that supported families in finding their own rhythm again. Something that honoured the grounded, deeply human parts of the holiday season. A kit that was not about perfection, but about presence. Something that invited slow making, storytelling, gentle creativity, community moments, and tiny rituals that open the heart.
Inside Heart of the Season are activities designed to spark connection, not overwhelm. Creative prompts that help families settle into the quieter magic beneath it all, the magic that has nothing to do with how much we buy and everything to do with how much we feel.
There is also a cheeky little elf in the kit, inspired softly by the classic Elf on the Shelf, but gentler, sweeter, more grounded. He appears not as a distraction or an obligation, but as a light-hearted reminder to share one moment of silly fun together each day. A tiny companion who brings joy without pressure.
One of the things I love most is that the kit can be reused year after year. Everything can be recycled, but you do not need to throw anything away if you do not want to. Children change so much in a single year that the activities become new again simply because they are new again. Their perspectives shift. Their abilities grow. Their curiosity deepens. The kit grows with them.
And the characters?
I imagine them becoming familiar little friends in your home, companions woven into your family’s December rhythm year after year. The kind of characters your children talk about, look for, remember, and grow up alongside.
Heart of the Season is my offering to families who crave a Christmas that feels more meaningful, more connected, more human. A softer way to move through December. A reminder that magic is not something we need to chase. It is something we create together, one gentle moment at a time.
Cherrie