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Speaker 1: It's the Happy Families podcast.

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Speaker 2: It's the podcast for the.

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Speaker 3: Time poor parent who just wants answers. Now, Well, this

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Speaker 3: is the week that we celebrate and get ready for

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Speaker 3: everything Christmas related. Hello, this is doctor Justin Courslan here

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Speaker 3: with Kylie, my wife and mum to our six kids,

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Speaker 3: and today a conversation about Christmas traditions. By the way,

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Speaker 3: if you don't like Christmas, you are going to hate

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Speaker 3: this week, because Kylie, what have we got today? We're

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Speaker 3: talking about Christmas traditions. Tomorrow this is what Tomorrow will

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Speaker 3: be your specialty, prep and planning Christmas the next day.

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Speaker 3: I know that I'm going to upset some people, but

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Speaker 3: we're going to talk about the Santa myth and everything

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Speaker 3: related to Santa and Saint Nick and what we should

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Speaker 3: be talking about kids about Thursday, another one for you,

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Speaker 3: a big specialty one for you, Kylie.

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Speaker 4: Budgeting Christmas, Christmas on a budget which we have.

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Speaker 3: Lived endlessly for the last couple of decades. And on Friday,

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Speaker 3: instead of I'll do better tomorrow, it'll be I'll do

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Speaker 3: better this Christmas. Looking forward to that, let's dive into it.

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Speaker 3: I mean, Christmas is a time where everyone talks about

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Speaker 3: the importance of traditions, but do we really have them?

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Speaker 3: We ask some of our Happy Families listeners, and Jess

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Speaker 3: told us that these are her Christmas traditions.

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Speaker 5: We usually watch the Christmas Carols on TV on Christmas Eve,

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Speaker 5: and we always put snacks and milk out for Santa.

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Speaker 5: Santa writes a letter to the kids and always leaves

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Speaker 5: an orange or a mandarin in the bottom of the sacks.

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Speaker 4: I think our kids would be highly disappointed with an

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Speaker 4: orange or amandarin. Our tradition has been a mango. They

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Speaker 4: just love it.

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Speaker 3: Yes, yeah, too right, we'll talk about our tradition shortly

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Speaker 3: as well. I was impressed by the way. So we've

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Speaker 3: never sat down and watched carols. We've tried once or

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Speaker 3: twice and everyone's like this is boring. So so we've

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Speaker 3: given up on the carols on the TV. But Santa letters.

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Speaker 3: Santa actually writes a letter to each of the kids.

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Speaker 3: Can you imagine how much letter writing Santa would have

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Speaker 3: to do in our home for that many people.

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Speaker 4: Maybe it's only short.

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Speaker 3: This next one is from Lisa. Lisa has really impressed

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Speaker 3: me with what she does. And I've got a feeling, Kylie,

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Speaker 3: that you might be a little bit jealous.

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Speaker 1: Putting up the Christmas tree. We love doing that as

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Speaker 1: a family. I'm in the interior design industry, so I

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Speaker 1: love decorating the house, decorating the front door, and I

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Speaker 1: try and get my children involved in that and just

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Speaker 1: spending time with family like Christmas Eve. We love celebrating

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Speaker 1: Christmas Eve just as much as Christmas Day.

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Speaker 3: So Kylie a little bit jealous? You love me? I

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Speaker 3: mean I put up the Christmas tree. I reckon you

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Speaker 3: could actually have an interior decorator. You could put that

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Speaker 3: on your business card and pretend that you are on

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Speaker 3: because yours looks so good. But this is your thing,

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Speaker 3: right make the house look amazing. After us laughing about

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Speaker 3: how we didn't even have our tree up, over the

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Speaker 3: last few days, you have with the kids just gone

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Speaker 3: crazy and the house now looks so Christmasy and so

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Speaker 3: beautiful and there's lights everywhere.

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Speaker 4: And a little miss seven is a little bit upset

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Speaker 4: with me. Though we normally do two Christmas tree because

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Speaker 4: we have family Christmas with extended family come and so

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Speaker 4: we like to keep the present separate. I've always put

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Speaker 4: up two trees, but this year we're not hosting family

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Speaker 4: Christmas and so I've only put up one.

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Speaker 3: She's really not happy about it, and I'm breathing a

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Speaker 3: sigh of relief. Let's talk about Rachel. Rachel's got really

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Speaker 3: strong religious foundations, and I think it's really important to

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Speaker 3: acknowledge this at Christmas time. This is how their family

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Speaker 3: creates Christmas traditions.

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Speaker 6: We have an advent stringline that we hang up that

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Speaker 6: each day of December until Christmas, we add a card

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Speaker 6: that shows the name of Jesus his various names that

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Speaker 6: are shown in the Bible. We focus on the birth

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Speaker 6: of Jesus and what that means for us. We will

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Speaker 6: set up a very basic Christmas tree and a string

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Speaker 6: of lights as a bit of an acknowledgment of what

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Speaker 6: happens in our culture. But we definitely keep it simple.

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Speaker 3: Yeah. I really like that, And I'm thinking, because there

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Speaker 3: are so many names that you could actually continue that

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Speaker 3: for like half the year if you really wanted to.

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Speaker 3: That would be a very very heavy stringline by the

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Speaker 3: end of it. Our next one comes from Larissa. Larissa

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Speaker 3: said this about her Christmas traditions.

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Speaker 2: One of the ones that our kiddos really like is

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Speaker 2: that they get matching Christmas pajamas on Christmas Eve, so

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Speaker 2: they get to unrup them and put them on for

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Speaker 2: bed that night. And one of our new traditions last year,

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Speaker 2: we decided to become Christmas Ninja's. Our children make things

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Speaker 2: for their friends and then we go to their houses

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Speaker 2: and sneakily drop them off on the doorstet trying not

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Speaker 2: to get caught.

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Speaker 4: So anyone who's been following the podcast for a while

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Speaker 4: now would know that you get a little bit frustrated

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Speaker 4: when you spend unnecessary amount of money on things that

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Speaker 4: you don't deem important.

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Speaker 3: I know what you're going to say here, by the way,

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Speaker 3: you're going to go for the pj's, aren't you. Well.

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Speaker 4: A few years ago, Peter Alexander had a massive after

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Speaker 4: Christmas sale and they had all of the right sizes

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Speaker 4: in matching pajamas, and so I kind of said to you,

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Speaker 4: can I get these? And you look at me, like,

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Speaker 4: what do we need those?

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Speaker 3: Form's the thing, right, So we're buying nine pairs of pajamas.

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Speaker 3: There's eight in our family plus a son in law,

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Speaker 3: so we've got nine pairs of pajamas and you want

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Speaker 3: to buy a pick And I love what Laris's doing

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Speaker 3: with the pjs, and I love that it's a tradition,

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Speaker 3: but I'm just too tight, So I'm like, we only

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Speaker 3: wear those pajamas one night of the year.

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Speaker 4: So we are recycling our Grinch pajamas from last Christmas

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Speaker 4: for this Christmas because you only let them wear them

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Speaker 4: on Christmas Eve.

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Speaker 3: That's right, but it is a tradition.

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Speaker 4: She just loved it, and it was so nice because

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Speaker 4: it was the first Christmas that our eldest daughter married

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Speaker 4: now with her husband, came and stayed with us, so

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Speaker 4: they got all dressed up as well. The dog had

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Speaker 4: his antlers to fit in with it all, and it

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Speaker 4: was just it was such a nice way to spend

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Speaker 4: Christmas morning waking up all dressed the same.

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Speaker 3: So Larisa, I'm with you, except I'm not buying pj's

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Speaker 3: every year. Were by one t I did.

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Speaker 4: See the gingerbread ones this year, and I was really

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Speaker 4: excited about maybe introducing that this year.

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Speaker 3: Boy, you know what, and I love Laris's Christmas Ninja's.

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Speaker 3: We've done that on and off periodically over the years,

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Speaker 3: and it's a really delightful way to enjoy Christmas. Right

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Speaker 3: after the break, we're going to talk about our favorite

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Speaker 3: traditions in the course on home to make Christmas a

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Speaker 3: Happy Families celebration, It's the Happy Families Podcast.

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Speaker 7: Imagine a home where discipline got results without anyone having

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Speaker 7: to feel bad or in trouble. The Do's and Domes

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Speaker 7: of Discipline as a webinar to help parents set limits

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Speaker 7: with love, compassion and humanity. Find it now at happyfamilies

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Speaker 7: dot com dot au slash shop.

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Speaker 4: It's the Happy Families Podcast, the podcast for the time

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Speaker 4: poor parent who just wants answers now. And today we're

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Speaker 4: talking Christmas traditions. Yes, we've heard a few really cool ones.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, Carol's are opening gifts nice and slowly and savoring

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Speaker 3: the moment Christmas. Pj's Christmas Ninja's decorating the house like

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Speaker 3: an interior designer at venton Calendar advent Calendars. Yeah, and

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Speaker 3: so many more. Our favorite Christmas traditions. We were talking

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Speaker 3: about this and your initial response was we don't have any.

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Speaker 3: But when we paused and thought about, we've actually got

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Speaker 3: a whole bunch of Christmas traditions and we're just going

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Speaker 3: to share with you just a brief handful of our

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Speaker 3: favorite let's call it our favorite five.

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Speaker 4: Well, we're just going to back it up a little

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Speaker 4: bit there, because I said that we didn't have any

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Speaker 4: because we've spent so many years traveling from grandparent to

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Speaker 4: grandparent for Christmas time. It was either your family or

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Speaker 4: my family, and so we never actually got to do

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Speaker 4: the things that we wanted to with our kids. On

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Speaker 4: Christmas Morning, they always woke up in Nannie's.

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Speaker 3: House, ye, whether it was yours or my, or they

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Speaker 3: woke up at the crack of dawn so that we

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Speaker 3: could drive to grandma's house.

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Speaker 4: Yeah, And so it really kind of interfered with the

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Speaker 4: things that we wish we could have done with the kids.

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Speaker 4: But over the last handful of years, as our family's

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Speaker 4: gotten older, we've kind of, I guess, tightened up our

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Speaker 4: Christmas traditions in that we've really seen Christmas Day is

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Speaker 4: a time for our family.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, so much so that Christmas tradition has become Christmas

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Speaker 3: Day is our day. Yeah. So we have family Christmas

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Speaker 3: Days in the days leading up to or following Christmas

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Speaker 3: because we just want to have December twenty five with

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Speaker 3: our family, and that has become.

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Speaker 4: In our home and in our home, I think all

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Speaker 4: those years of traveling to and from on Christmas Day,

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Speaker 4: the kids have just got to that point in their

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Speaker 4: lives where they just want to wake up in their

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Speaker 4: own bed and just have us because, like Jess said,

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Speaker 4: one of our favorite traditions is the kids know that

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Speaker 4: they're not allowed to touch anything under the Christmas tree

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Speaker 4: when they wake up, but whatever time they wake up,

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Speaker 4: they can grab their stockings and they land on our bed.

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Speaker 4: It's a pretty full bed by the time we've got

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Speaker 4: all six of them.

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Speaker 3: Sitting in there, especially with the sun in law laying

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Speaker 3: across the top of.

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Speaker 4: All of us, and they love opening their stockings and

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Speaker 4: it is one by one they just revel in watching

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Speaker 4: each other.

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Speaker 3: So because of the way we approach the Santa question,

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Speaker 3: the stockings are really the primary Santa vehicle, and there's

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Speaker 3: a tradition there's always a Bundleberg ginger beer.

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Speaker 4: Which doesn't actually ever fit in there now, no.

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Speaker 3: It doesn't, because Santa seems to be filling those stockings

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Speaker 3: for them all right. And there's all so a mango

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Speaker 3: in there as well. So that's that's the central element, right,

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Speaker 3: the stocking on Christmas Morning with the mango and the

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Speaker 3: ginger beer.

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Speaker 4: And when they were younger, it used to be yoged

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Speaker 4: as well.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, so have a nutritious breakfast those squeezy chips. Our

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Speaker 3: second Christmas tradition, and we've actually kind of go back

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Speaker 3: in time a little bit, is that on Christmas Eve,

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Speaker 3: we try to go to bed as early as possible

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Speaker 3: and we all read a book.

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Speaker 1: You know.

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Speaker 4: I actually it's one of my favorite traditions because when

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Speaker 4: the kids were younger, obviously, there was so much excitement

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Speaker 4: about Santa coming that they wouldn't go to sleep on

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Speaker 4: Christmas Eve, and then they would wake up at the

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Speaker 4: crack of dawn, and then we would do all of

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Speaker 4: that driving to and from families houses, and the day

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Speaker 4: was just chaos. Everybody was cranky, everybody was tired, everybody

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Speaker 4: was over sugared. And now we've got this beautiful tradition

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Speaker 4: where everybody gets a book that they've never read before.

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Speaker 4: They get to go to bed and read for as

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Speaker 4: long as they want, But the reality is they don't

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Speaker 4: read for very long at all, and everyone wakes up

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Speaker 4: refreshed in the morning.

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Speaker 3: It's Iceland's Christmas book flood. But that's where we got

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Speaker 3: the idea from the tradition in icelandjeelobbog. I can't say it.

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Speaker 3: This is Embarrassinglabo Jelabica Flood book. Oh my goodness, that's

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Speaker 3: a good thing. I wasn't born in Iceland because I

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Speaker 3: can't speak the language. Obviously Iceland's Christmas book Flood. We

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Speaker 3: got the idea from there and it's become a real

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Speaker 3: treat in our home.

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Speaker 4: And initially chocolate, the block of chocolate that comes with it.

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Speaker 3: May I didn't like the idea initially because I was like, no,

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Speaker 3: Christmas Eve, we should be together. But now I relish it,

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Speaker 3: I'm like, kids, get your book, go to bed. I

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Speaker 3: want to read the book this all years. I'm so

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Speaker 3: excited for it. Christmas tradition number one, stockings on the bed,

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Speaker 3: Christmas tradition number two, giving a book on Christmas Eve

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Speaker 3: Christmas tradition number three.

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Speaker 4: There is always a service element to our celebrations at

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Speaker 4: Christmas time.

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Speaker 3: We just love to be helpful, we love to give,

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Speaker 3: and we do that in all sorts of ways. I

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Speaker 3: don't want to make a big deal about that. It's

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Speaker 3: just something that we do and I think we should

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Speaker 3: move on. But if you can find ways for your

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Speaker 3: family to give and serve, whether it's through donations or

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Speaker 3: whether it's through like charitable giving or volunteering or.

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Speaker 4: The Christmas ninjas.

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Speaker 3: I love that.

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Speaker 4: Like Larissa talked about Knock and Run, it's not about

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Speaker 4: the size, it's actually just about the giving.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, fantastic stuff. And I think something else that

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Speaker 3: we've really started since our daughter has been married, the

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Speaker 3: Christmas Eve sleepover. I mean you kind of touched on

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Speaker 3: that before anyway, but just having her and her husband

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Speaker 3: hanging out in our house on Christmas Eve and waking

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Speaker 3: up on Christmas morning, it's become a tradition. I don't

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Speaker 3: know how long it'll last, but I'm savoring it while

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Speaker 3: it's happening.

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Speaker 4: Well, I've watched over the years, you know, it was different.

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Speaker 4: Couples have navigated who has who for Christmas, and it

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Speaker 4: can get really, really messy.

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Speaker 3: So I had on Christmas Christmas morning.

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Speaker 4: Well, I had no expectations whatsoever. I figured that they'd

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Speaker 4: actually want to spend their first Christmas alone. But all

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Speaker 4: they could think about was if they didn't spend it

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Speaker 4: with us, they weren't going to get a Christmas stuff.

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Speaker 3: She didn't you beer in their mango.

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Speaker 4: She even said to me this year, she said, so

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Speaker 4: you are doing Jared's Christmas stocking, aren't you.

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Speaker 3: That means I don't have to so anyway. They're a

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Speaker 3: handful of our Christmas traditions. I mean, we love to

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Speaker 3: sing Christmas songs on Christmas Day and have the Christmas

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Speaker 3: music blaring. We always read the Nativity on Christmas Day

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Speaker 3: or on Christmas Eve with the kids, depending on what

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Speaker 3: the schedule is for the day. And as a result

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Speaker 3: of what we've decided for our family, we really do

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Speaker 3: keep it low key. And that's not a tradition so

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Speaker 3: much as a mindset or an attitude. But boy a

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Speaker 3: boy doesn't make a difference in terms of making Christmas

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Speaker 3: delightful for the family. We hope that these ideas from Jess, Larissa,

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Speaker 3: Lisa Rachel and from our family will help you to

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Speaker 3: establish some Christmas traditions that are meaningful for you in

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Speaker 3: your home and help you to have a happy family

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Speaker 3: and a happy Christmas. The Happy Families podcast, as always,

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Speaker 3: is produced by Justin Rowland from Bridge Media. Craig Bruce

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Speaker 3: is our executive producer. And if you're still looking for

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Speaker 3: last minute Christmas gifts, Happy Families dot com dot you

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Speaker 3: check out the books that I've written to make your

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Speaker 3: family happier, or buy a Happy Families premium membership for

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Speaker 3: the other parent in your life that will help make

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Speaker 3: your family happy, because a happy family doesn't just happen.

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Speaker 3: All the details once again at happy families dot com,

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Speaker 3: dot a