Make your holiday fun list

Figure out what memories you'd like to make, and when you'll make them

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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 to make your Holiday fun list. By figuring
out what you want to do during this upcoming festive

(00:23):
season and figuring out when you can do these things,
you increase the chances that you truly enjoy yourself and
make the kind of memories that you want to have.
So every year, around this time, I make what I
call a holiday fund list. This is a list of

(00:45):
all the celebratory things I want to do for the holidays.
I celebrate Christmas, but whatever you celebrate, it tends to
be a festive time of year. It also tends to
be a busy time of year, and there may be
more options for shows, light displays, and so forth. Then
we can space available to put these things. I used

(01:08):
to just make a list of the things I wanted
to do, like go see Longwood gardens, see some holiday trains,
go to the Nutcracker, have my kids be in the
church Christmas pageant. Then a few years ago I realized
that with everyone's schedules, I needed to figure out exactly
when we could do these things, probably by mid November.

(01:28):
If I didn't figure out which weekend in November or
December we'd go see illuminature at the Philadelphia Zoo and
which weekend we'd go to Dutch Wonderland, we would probably
run out of time. So this year I asked my
kids and husband what everyone wanted to do, and then
I plotted out the weekends of late November, December, and

(01:51):
early January. Yes, it turns out that some displays are
still up in January. Longwood Gardens and the New York
Botanical Garden, for instance, both have their holiday displays open
until January eleventh of this year, for instance. That buys
you a little more time. We are aiming to do
things that don't require strict scheduling as well, think holiday baking,

(02:14):
holiday lego building, getting matching Christmas pajamas. Still, it helps
to know roughly when those things will happen. I am
targeting a particular Sunday in December for baking. That way
I can look forward to it. I know everyone has
different levels of holiday ambitions or comfort with full schedules.

(02:37):
There's no need to pack things in just to do so.
But if you are like me, January and February tend
to be a bit ho hum. It's okay to be
a bit busier in December when there are more things
to do. I also think it would be a bit
sad come January to look back and think, well, it

(02:57):
would have been fun to have a baking day with friends.
So if you are listening to this episode when it
is first running in mid November, take some time today
to list out what you would like to experience this
holiday season. Who would you like to see, what would
you like to do? Where would you like to go?

(03:19):
Make your list and then share it with the friends
and family you would likely be spending time with. What
would they add? Then get out your calendar and start
looking at the time available. For most people, most things
are going to have to happen on the weekends. There's
Thanksgiving weekend and then three weekends in December before Christmas.

(03:42):
That might not sound like a lot, but fortunately a
lot of holiday things don't end right on the twenty fifth.
There's a December weekend after Christmas, and of course early January.
There might be time in there to hit up a
light display or get together with friends for a festive meal,
but all of those are more likely to happen if
you think about them ahead of time and get them

(04:04):
on the calendar now. To be sure, I don't recommend
planning experiences for every second. Santa will need time in
the workshop, and if you likewise have holiday work you'll
need to do like shopping and food prep, then you
need to build that in. Plus things will come up.

(04:25):
It's nice to have space to get together with people
if they suggest it. The good news is that when
we are intentional with our time, I promise that there
is usually space during the holiday season for they have
to dos alongside the want to dos. And if people
do want to do things last minute, well now you

(04:46):
know what time is available to steer them towards instead
of just saying no because you feel overwhelmed. I know
I am excited about all of it, so I hope
you will make your holiday fun list with me. We
will all enjoy this season and make the kind of
memories we will be thinking about well into the new year.

(05:08):
In 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,

(05:28):
you can reach me at Laura at Laura vandercam dot com.
Before Breakfast is a production of iHeartMedia. For more podcasts
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