Speaker 1: Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of I Heart Radio.
Speaker 1: Good Morning. This is Laura. Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast.
Speaker 1: Today's tip is to do something fun to celebrate little holidays.
Speaker 1: Quirky traditions can help make memories, make people feel like
Speaker 1: part of a group, and in general make life more enjoyable.
Speaker 1: This episode is first airing on Halloween, which at least
Speaker 1: in the US, has become a big day for kids
Speaker 1: and adults alike. My four children picked out their costumes
Speaker 1: earlier in the month. The elementary school kids will parade
Speaker 1: around their school grounds. For parents who I learned this
Speaker 1: after moving here, will all take a half day to
Speaker 1: come watch. We'll go trick or treating tonight, picking up
Speaker 1: candy from neighbors. My kids don't even have that much
Speaker 1: interest in the candy after a week or so. It's
Speaker 1: more just the fun of being out and about doing
Speaker 1: something different than the usual teene of dinner, homework, and bed.
Speaker 1: My heavy partying days are likely behind me, but from
Speaker 1: what I hear, Halloween is also a big night at
Speaker 1: the bars, with adults seizing the opportunity to dress up
Speaker 1: creatively or subversively. Some of us stretch out the fun
Speaker 1: by adding in festive holiday activities in our communities, such
Speaker 1: as a boo at the zoo or visits to pumpkin patches,
Speaker 1: and I like to throw in little things for the
Speaker 1: day itself. For the past few years, I've made pumpkin
Speaker 1: shaped pancakes on Halloween morning and attempted to die them orange.
Speaker 1: So why do we do these things? Holidays and special
Speaker 1: days in general are a big part of being human.
Speaker 1: We like to celebrate. In particular, we like to celebrate
Speaker 1: special days to gather as families and communities, and we
Speaker 1: mark the passage of time by seeing holidays come and
Speaker 1: go on the calendar. Again, that's true for all holidays,
Speaker 1: but I think that minor holidays like Halloween or Valentine's
Speaker 1: Day present particularly good opportunities to add a little happiness
Speaker 1: to life. Part of the appeal is that they are minor.
Speaker 1: Major religious holidays such as Christmas or Passover have millennia
Speaker 1: of traditions behind them and thus produce a lot of
Speaker 1: pressure to get it right. You are plugging into long
Speaker 1: standing customs. There can be much joy in that. There
Speaker 1: can also be a lot of seriousness unless space for
Speaker 1: quirky approaches. Also, with the big holidays. Our calendars already
Speaker 1: acknowledge them. Many offices closed around the Christmas holiday, or
Speaker 1: there's an assumption that people will want it off. In
Speaker 1: my school district, we always have Spring Break, the week
Speaker 1: of Passover and Easter. Life already changes for these holidays.
Speaker 1: The minor holidays, on the other hand, give us an
Speaker 1: opportunity to take our normal lives and switch them up
Speaker 1: a notch, usually with a focus on fun. Magazines don't
Speaker 1: devote whole issue is to reducing Halloween stress or St.
Speaker 1: Patrick's Day stress. You don't feel like you have to
Speaker 1: do a whole lot, and so you voluntarily choose to
Speaker 1: do little things. You celebrate at your regular office or school.
Speaker 1: You take a regular Thursday and just make it more special.
Speaker 1: This creates memories and makes people feel like they're part
Speaker 1: of something. So how should you celebrate minor holidays at
Speaker 1: home in the office? First notice that they're coming up.
Speaker 1: Choose two to three per year to focus on Halloween,
Speaker 1: Valentine's Day and St. Patrick's Day might be good choices,
Speaker 1: but if you want to do Arbor Day, go for it.
Speaker 1: And of course people listening to this in countries outside
Speaker 1: the US have a whole host of other options from
Speaker 1: their cultures for their minor holidays. Think about what you
Speaker 1: could do to make them special personally. I'm a big
Speaker 1: fan of celebrating at breakfast. I've made heart shaped pancakes
Speaker 1: and four leaf clover shaped pancakes in addition to my
Speaker 1: pumpkin ones. Even the morning's fruit can match the color
Speaker 1: of the day. Maybe you bring in shamrocks shaped donuts
Speaker 1: to your office or cater at pumpkins centered lunch. Halloween
Speaker 1: lends itself to costumes, but dressing up in general can
Speaker 1: be fun. Hence the green on St. Patrick's Day and
Speaker 1: the various red and pink options I've supported on Valentine's Day.
Speaker 1: And then maybe there's some other way you can mark
Speaker 1: the occasion. I get my kids Valentine's Day cards with
Speaker 1: a note saying how much I love them. We make
Speaker 1: leprechn traps on St. Patrick's Day. The leprecn always escapes,
Speaker 1: but he leaves rainbow colored or gold candy of some sort.
Speaker 1: In time, quirky traditions become part of a culture, whether
Speaker 1: of a family or a workplace. We're the family that
Speaker 1: has silly shaped pancakes on holidays. We're the office where
Speaker 1: we eat beet salads and strawberries and red velvet cupcakes
Speaker 1: on Valentine's Day. We are part of this together and
Speaker 1: while we certainly hope identities are stronger than that, you're
Speaker 1: also a family that really pulls together in an emerge
Speaker 1: and see her. Maybe you're the most diverse department in
Speaker 1: your company. There's no reason not to submit these identities
Speaker 1: when we can. In time, they can actually become our
Speaker 1: memories of the time we spent together. Oh yeah, I
Speaker 1: remember my years at that company. I enjoyed them. We
Speaker 1: had the silliest holiday lunches. So how will you celebrate
Speaker 1: Halloween and other minor holidays this year? If you've got
Speaker 1: a quirky tradition as a family or an office, you
Speaker 1: can let me know about it at Before Breakfast Podcast
Speaker 1: at iHeart media dot com. In the meantime, this is Laura.
Speaker 1: Thanks for listening, and here's to making the most of
Speaker 1: our time. Hey, everybody, I'd love to hear from you.
Speaker 1: You can send me your tips, your questions, or anything else.
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Speaker 1: Before Breakfast Pod. That's b the number four than Breakfast
Speaker 1: p o D. You can also shoot me an email
Speaker 1: at before Breakfast podcast at iHeart media dot com that
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Speaker 1: so much, I look forward to staying in touch. Before
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