Prepare for the week after Christmas

Stretch out the fun, and avoid cabin fever

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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 Christmas tends not to really be over
on December twenty fifth. Many people are still off work,

(00:24):
but even if they aren't, many kids are still off
of school. To avoid going stir crazy, it is best
to figure out a plan for this post holiday time
of year. Don't let it catch you by surprise. A
lot of December is spent in the build up to Christmas.

(00:44):
If your family celebrates this holiday, and particularly if you
do stockings and presents on Christmas Morning, then a lot
of the holiday prep does have to happen by then.
But then what My kids are generally out of school
until January first teach year this year. Since January first
is on a Thursday, they go back to school on Monday,

(01:06):
January fifth. I don't have to tell you that there
is a lot of time between December twenty fourth and
January fifth. This is one reason we are traveling this year,
but we don't always, and even someone taking a few
days away would still have a lot of days to
work with. Not everyone gets this many vacation days either,

(01:29):
so best to come up with a plan, so each
day is a repeat of those early days of COVID
when we were trying to work with kids at home underfoot.
I'm not sure how many people remember that time fondly. First,
if you do plan to work, then you and your
partner if you have one, need to figure out a

(01:50):
schedule for who is with the kids. You could trade
off and each party could take the kids out to
various trampoline parks or science museums or what have you
each day, or you could enroll your kids in a
break camp, which many communities have, as do many commercial
establishments like rock climbing gyms. Even if you do plan

(02:12):
to take all these days off work, you are probably
going to want at least something of a break, So
establish a few hours at least when you will trade
off with your partner or you will hire a babysitter.
As for the time you are covering, why not make
a post holiday fund list. There might be items from

(02:32):
your original holiday fund list that you haven't gotten to
yet but that are still available, or you might want
to repeat them. For instance, if you wanted to go
ice skating, I am guessing that your ice skating rink
doesn't close after Christmas, Lots of light displays will still
be lit. The Nutcracker may still be being performed. Indeed,

(02:59):
these are all things even people who aren't tending small
kids might choose to do to stretch out the holiday fun.
If the weather is terrible in your part of the
world in late December and early January, you might look
for some indoor fun. Make a list of the indoor
options for families in your community and create a rough schedule.

(03:21):
When can you go to a movie? When should you
do an escape room? For bonus points, you might try
to get other people to join you. Speaking of which,
play dates are a great way to fill the post
Christmas hours. Over the holidays, it might be possible to
have more of a family playdate. Go hang out with

(03:42):
another family and the kids can play in one area
while the adults chat in another. You might make visits
to extended family members. Indeed, it can be fun to
have an extended family celebration after Christmas so you can
stretch out the gift giving fun. And who knows, maybe
some relatives will take the kids for a bit while

(04:04):
you are there, giving mom and dad a break. We
often plan tightly in the weeks before Christmas, because there
is so much schedule during this time. It is not
easy to get to all the holiday performances and parties
and get enough work done to be ahead of the
game for the time off over the holidays. But then

(04:26):
we get to the holidays and everything is a lot
less tight. That is fine in some ways, but when
your kids have been watching YouTube for ten hours straight
but still interrupting you every ten minutes, things might feel
a little bit crazy. Making best to avoid that if possible.

(04:49):
Think through the week after Christmas, and you might just
feel festive and merry rather than harried. And I want
that for everyone listening to this 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.

(05:19):
If you've got questions, ideas, or feedback, you can reach
me at Laura at Laura vandercam dot com. Before Breakfast
is a production of iHeartMedia. For more podcasts from iHeartMedia,
please visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you

(05:41):
listen to your favorite shows.