Make Christmas plans at Thanksgiving

Save time by planning in person

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:03):
Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of iHeartRadio. Good Morning,
This is Laura. Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast. Today's
tip is that if you celebrate Thanksgiving and Christmas or
Hanukkah with the same people, it can be convenient to
make your December holiday plans at Thanksgiving. It is often easier.

Speaker 2 (00:28):
To make plans in person than over text or email.
Plus it's helpful to have a plan in advance so
no one has to scramble at the last minute. Many
families have some sort of routine for their holiday celebrations.
For instance, maybe your family always gathers for a meal

(00:49):
around four o'clock on Christmas afternoon, with everybody contributing a dish,
though the entree and the person hosting may vary from
year to year. Or maybe every year your family gathers
at your parents' house on the second night of Hanukkah,
so various branches of the family can gather with their
other relatives on the first night. If your family has

(01:12):
a basic plan you follow every year, Thanksgiving is a
great time to take that plan from vague to specific.
For example, if you will gather in December for a
big family meal with each person contributing a dish, or
to figure out a Thanksgiving who is bringing what? You

(01:34):
could circulate a sign up sheet or ask each person
what they want to bring and take notes. If the
adults usually draw names to exchange gifts, you could draw
names at Thanksgiving. Just be sure to make provisions for
anyone who is not at Thanksgiving dinner but will be
part of the Christmas gift exchange. If you give gifts

(01:56):
to multiple people in December, Thanksgiving can be a great
time to ask these people if there is anything in
particular they would like. You will be able to ask
them questions live and maybe even go through some options together,
or quickly work out a group gift for someone without
a lot of digital back and forth. Of course, your

(02:20):
family may have default plans that you follow every December,
but those plans may not be working for everybody anymore.
If that is the case, Thanksgiving can be a great
time to reimagine what your December gathering could be, and
if your family doesn't have a basic plan for celebrating
the December holidays, Thanksgiving can be an ideal time to

(02:43):
do big picture planning while you are gathered in the
kitchen cleaning up from Thanksgiving dinner, you can talk about
your hopes and plans for Christmas or whatever else you celebrate.
You can talk about what you'd like to do while
you are seeing each other, who will host, and when
you will gather. Even if you don't figure out all

(03:04):
the logistics at that time, you can get a shared
vision and pave the way for more specific planning. Thanksgiving, Hanukkah,
and Christmas come fast on each other's heels at what
is usually a very full time of year. If you
gather with the same people for each holiday, planning for

(03:26):
the next holiday while you're to gather at Thanksgiving can
ensure everyone has plenty of lead time for doing their part,
and it means you can plan live rather than needing
to do it all remotely, so you will probably be
more efficient and cheerful during the planning process too. In

(03:46):
the meantime, this is Laura. Thanks for listening, and here's
to making the most of our time. Thanks for listening
to Before Breakfast. If you've got questions, ideas, or feedback,
you can reach me at Laura at Laura vandercam dot com.

(04:16):
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