Hello Christmas! Hello, Time to Pause and Reflect!

We’re stepping back for a moment, to breathe, to be, to sit with what 2025 taught us. Wishing you and your loved ones a holiday season full of quiet blessings.

2025 was intense. It broke me open - painful, yes, but also stripped away the facade and reminded me who I really am at my core. It showed me who is truly for me, who doesn’t really care, and the real faces behind people I once thought were the poster children for values.

Life doesn’t wait for neat calendar breaks. Breaks aren’t handed to us neatly at the turn of a page. We carve them ourselves, moments to reset, to dust off, to choose what grounds us. We create our pauses, our resets, wherever and whenever we can. Sometimes, if circumstances allow, we even gift ourselves the breaks we need.

I will be taking time off to strategize, cool my head and be with loved ones. In just two weeks, 2026 begins. Back to the hamster wheel, yes - but hopefully at my own pace, anchored in my voice, my choices and the spaces that feel like home.

Merry Christmas to those who celebrate and a gentle happy pause to everyone who doesn’t.

Remember: family is not only by birth, but also by love, by choice, by the grace of being seen and wanted. And as the new year arrives, may we all carry the courage to let go of what no longer serves us, embrace the people and moments that do, and step forward with a heart unafraid to begin again as often as life invites us to start anew.

To accompany this pause, here’s a Spotify playlist to keep you company- whether you’re reflecting, reading or just soaking in the season:

Untypical Christmas Songs

• Sia – Snowman

• Joni Mitchell – River

• The Shins – Wonderful Christmastime (cover)

• Badly Drawn Boy – Silent Night

• Phoebe Bridgers – Christmas Song

• Dolly Parton - Christmas

Typical Christmas Songs

• Mariah Carey – All I Want for Christmas Is You

• Wham! – Last Christmas

• Michael Bublé – It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas

• Brenda Lee – Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree

• Nat King Cole – The Christmas Song (Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire)

Traditional South African December Songs

• Johnny Clegg & Savuka – Dela

• Ladysmith Black Mambazo – Hello My Baby

• Mango Groove – Special Star

• Soweto Gospel Choir – Baba Yetu

• Soweto Gospel Choir – Iza Ngomso – “Come Tomorrow”

• Stimela – Whispers in the Deep

Jazz Tracks

• Ella Fitzgerald – Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas

• Billie Holiday – I’ll Be Seeing You

• Miles Davis – Blue Xmas

• Chet Baker – Let’s Get Lost

• Diana Krall – The Christmas Song

Perfect for Reading in December

• Ludovico Einaudi – Nuvole Bianche

• Ólafur Arnalds – Near Light

• Nils Frahm – Some

• Sigur Rós – Hoppípolla

• Agnes Obel – Familiar

Songs All About Nostalgia

• Fleetwood Mac – Landslide

• Sade – Kiss of Life

• Tracy Chapman – Fast Car

• Bob  Marley & The Wailers One Love

• We Are the World

• Chariots of Fire – London Philharmonic Orchestra

• Let it Be – Martin Ernem

• John Lenon - Imagine

Author: Thabs Nyamane

18 December 2025

Creative Lead at Spheres Brand Consulting Emporium