Speaker 1: Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of iHeartRadio. Good Morning.
Speaker 1: This is Laura, Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast. Today's
Speaker 1: tip is to make your Holiday fun list. By figuring
Speaker 1: out what you want to do during this upcoming festive
Speaker 1: season and figuring out when you can do these things,
Speaker 1: you increase the chances that you truly enjoy yourself and
Speaker 1: make the kind of memories that you want to have.
Speaker 1: So every year, around this time, I make what I
Speaker 1: call a holiday fund list. This is a list of
Speaker 1: all the celebratory things I want to do for the holidays.
Speaker 1: I celebrate Christmas, but whatever you celebrate, it tends to
Speaker 1: be a festive time of year. It also tends to
Speaker 1: be a busy time of year, and there may be
Speaker 1: more options for shows, light displays, and so forth. Then
Speaker 1: we can space available to put these things. I used
Speaker 1: to just make a list of the things I wanted
Speaker 1: to do, like go see Longwood gardens, see some holiday trains,
Speaker 1: go to the Nutcracker, have my kids be in the
Speaker 1: church Christmas pageant. Then a few years ago I realized
Speaker 1: that with everyone's schedules, I needed to figure out exactly
Speaker 1: when we could do these things, probably by mid November.
Speaker 1: If I didn't figure out which weekend in November or
Speaker 1: December we'd go see illuminature at the Philadelphia Zoo and
Speaker 1: which weekend we'd go to Dutch Wonderland, we would probably
Speaker 1: run out of time. So this year I asked my
Speaker 1: kids and husband what everyone wanted to do, and then
Speaker 1: I plotted out the weekends of late November, December, and
Speaker 1: early January. Yes, it turns out that some displays are
Speaker 1: still up in January. Longwood Gardens and the New York
Speaker 1: Botanical Garden, for instance, both have their holiday displays open
Speaker 1: until January eleventh of this year, for instance. That buys
Speaker 1: you a little more time. We are aiming to do
Speaker 1: things that don't require strict scheduling as well, think holiday baking,
Speaker 1: holiday lego building, getting matching Christmas pajamas. Still, it helps
Speaker 1: to know roughly when those things will happen. I am
Speaker 1: targeting a particular Sunday in December for baking. That way
Speaker 1: I can look forward to it. I know everyone has
Speaker 1: different levels of holiday ambitions or comfort with full schedules.
Speaker 1: There's no need to pack things in just to do so.
Speaker 1: But if you are like me, January and February tend
Speaker 1: to be a bit ho hum. It's okay to be
Speaker 1: a bit busier in December when there are more things
Speaker 1: to do. I also think it would be a bit
Speaker 1: sad come January to look back and think, well, it
Speaker 1: would have been fun to have a baking day with friends.
Speaker 1: So if you are listening to this episode when it
Speaker 1: is first running in mid November, take some time today
Speaker 1: to list out what you would like to experience this
Speaker 1: holiday season. Who would you like to see, what would
Speaker 1: you like to do? Where would you like to go?
Speaker 1: Make your list and then share it with the friends
Speaker 1: and family you would likely be spending time with. What
Speaker 1: would they add? Then get out your calendar and start
Speaker 1: looking at the time available. For most people, most things
Speaker 1: are going to have to happen on the weekends. There's
Speaker 1: Thanksgiving weekend and then three weekends in December before Christmas.
Speaker 1: That might not sound like a lot, but fortunately a
Speaker 1: lot of holiday things don't end right on the twenty fifth.
Speaker 1: There's a December weekend after Christmas, and of course early January.
Speaker 1: There might be time in there to hit up a
Speaker 1: light display or get together with friends for a festive meal,
Speaker 1: but all of those are more likely to happen if
Speaker 1: you think about them ahead of time and get them
Speaker 1: on the calendar now. To be sure, I don't recommend
Speaker 1: planning experiences for every second. Santa will need time in
Speaker 1: the workshop, and if you likewise have holiday work you'll
Speaker 1: need to do like shopping and food prep, then you
Speaker 1: need to build that in. Plus things will come up.
Speaker 1: It's nice to have space to get together with people
Speaker 1: if they suggest it. The good news is that when
Speaker 1: we are intentional with our time, I promise that there
Speaker 1: is usually space during the holiday season for they have
Speaker 1: to dos alongside the want to dos. And if people
Speaker 1: do want to do things last minute, well now you
Speaker 1: know what time is available to steer them towards instead
Speaker 1: of just saying no because you feel overwhelmed. I know
Speaker 1: I am excited about all of it, so I hope
Speaker 1: you will make your holiday fun list with me. We
Speaker 1: will all enjoy this season and make the kind of
Speaker 1: memories we will be thinking about well into the new year.
Speaker 1: In the meantime, this is Laura. Thanks for listening, and
Speaker 1: here's to making the most of our time. Thanks for
Speaker 1: listening to before breakfast. If you've got questions, ideas, or feedback,
Speaker 1: you can reach me at Laura at Laura vandercam dot com.
Speaker 1: Before Breakfast is a production of iHeartMedia. For more podcasts
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Speaker 1: wherever you listen to your favorite shows.