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Speaker 1: Jersey and Amanda jam Nation. I saw something recently. It's

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Speaker 1: a woman I don't know. Her name is Helen. I

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Speaker 1: just saw her online and she said she's got a

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Speaker 1: picture of a Christmas tree in all this nice lounge room.

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Speaker 1: She said, this Christmas, I intend to be on my

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Speaker 1: own first time in my life happily. So I will

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Speaker 1: buy the best of foody treats. What's the best of

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Speaker 1: festive TV? Read books? I've been longing to read watch

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Speaker 1: carols from King's College in Cambridge's obviously English, just me,

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Speaker 1: no cooking for others, an indulgent day. And I've read

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Speaker 1: an article saying that a lot more people are choosing

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Speaker 1: to separate themselves from the stress and pressure of family Christmases.

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Speaker 1: We're more aware of mental health issues these days, and

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Speaker 1: people seeking out smaller, maybe intimate family Christmases. Some are

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Speaker 1: ignoring holidays altogether. It seems mothers in particular want some

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Speaker 1: time alone without the pressure of cooking, of cleaning, of

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Speaker 1: the thought, the thinking that it takes to put together

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Speaker 1: a Christmas for everyone. And I know that guys do

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Speaker 1: a lot, but traditionally it's women who bear the brunt

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Speaker 1: of the organizational tasks. Dad might put together a couple

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Speaker 1: of presents for Christmas, but it's moments. Bought the bits

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Speaker 1: and pieces, have thought about Christmas for a couple of

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Speaker 1: months leading up to it, so I can see why

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Speaker 1: people opt out of Christmas. When Harley and I were

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Speaker 1: going through IVF, his family is in New Zealand, mine

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Speaker 1: in Brisbane, there are a couple of times and we

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Speaker 1: just thought, let's just have Christmas on our own and

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Speaker 1: it was so liberal, as you do. Bought stacks of prawns,

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Speaker 1: went for a swim in the morning, bought stax of prawns,

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Speaker 1: and just saw a couple of friends on the day

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Speaker 1: and it felt liberating. And of course, once we had children,

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Speaker 1: suddenly family means everything and we're back in the zone

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Speaker 1: of oh, I want to spend Christmases together. But it

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Speaker 1: was nice to step away for a while. What are

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Speaker 1: you doing this year? This year, my dad is in

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Speaker 1: Brisbane and is a bit too elderly to travel. Last

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Speaker 1: year we went to Brisbane, but things are a bit

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Speaker 1: hard for Harley to travel like that too now, so

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Speaker 1: I'm going to I'm bringing my brother and sister in

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Speaker 1: law to the South Coast. I rented a house around

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Speaker 1: the corner from ours, nice and my kids will be there,

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Speaker 1: and my niece and nephew, who are now in their

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Speaker 1: thirties will be there, and I'm just pathetically excited. I'm

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Speaker 1: so pathetically excited. And what do you want me to bring?

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Speaker 1: You can come anytime you like, Brendan. It's going to

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Speaker 1: be an open house and everyone's welcome except for right

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Speaker 1: down the inflatable rings. And now as my kids get

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Speaker 1: older that I'm sort of holding on to can we

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Speaker 1: do this? Can we do this? So you go through

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Speaker 1: different stages in your life, and I'm imagining that this

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Speaker 1: woman Helen who'd written this thing about wanting to be

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Speaker 1: on her own, that's probably done Christmas for years, and

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Speaker 1: she says, now it's just going to be me. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: Merry Christmas, everybody, and however you choose to celebrate