Second Cup: How to split the holidays

Make it easier for your family to get together

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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 come up with creative ways to split
the holidays. If you have a big family, Inevitably some

(00:26):
folks are going to need or want to spend holidays
with other sides of the family. But if you plan well,
you might be able to see everyone and avoid bad
feelings too. If you have a partner, it is possible
that you live near both sides of your family, or

(00:49):
maybe one family loves to celebrate Thanksgiving while another leans
more into Christmas or another religious holiday. If so, that
is great, but many families wind up in more complicated situations.
Two sets of grandparents are many hours away from each
other and both want their whole broods under their roofs.

(01:15):
Or maybe one particular family member can't or won't travel
or has to work on the holiday itself, which means
that people more often than not wind up going to them.
That means these travelers don't get to spend holiday time
at home, which many people like to do too. You

(01:36):
can alternate doing Christmas and Thanksgiving with each side of
the family, But what if another set of siblings is
on a different schedule, then you are never seeing them. Ideally,
everyone is accommodating, but that doesn't always happen. It can
lead to hard feelings. But I recently heard an idea

(01:59):
which I find in intriguing and is a good one
for the matriarch or patriarch of a far flung or
big family to implement. That is, you establish a holiday
gathering time that is not Thanksgiving or Christmas. You all
gather on your family's particular celebration day, but that leaves

(02:22):
the other days open for families who wish or need
to celebrate with their other side of the family, or
who'd like to stay home. Your family celebration day could
still be around the holidays. For instance, you could host
your big holiday gathering on a mid December weekend. You
all gather on, say December seventeenth. People might need to

(02:46):
take a day or two off work to travel, but
maybe not too many days. And in any case, for
folks who work in say law enforcement or at a hospital,
it might be easier to request the days around decem
Umber seventeenth off than an actual holiday. You can all
celebrate and then people can spend Christmas or Thanksgiving at

(03:08):
home or with other relatives if they wish, or those
who are available can gather again if they want to.
More family time, fewer bad feelings now. To be sure,
there are often a lot of office parties and kid
Christmas events and such on December weekends, So to make

(03:28):
this even easier on people, you might host your holiday
gathering the weekend after New Year's whatever that happens to be.
I will note that the twelve days of Christmas actually
happen after Christmas, extending to January sixth. Many places still
have their lights up, and it might be easier to

(03:50):
get tickets if you are the frugal sort. I'd note
that having a family holiday party around January sixth means
you've got a week of shopping time available during the
biggest sales of the year. How much of a win
is that, plus you stretch out the fun. January can

(04:10):
be bleary in many places, having a big celebration to
look forward to pushes any doldrums off a few weeks
closer to spring. So if you've got a big family
you'd like to see, and many of your family members
have other sides of the family that they need or want,
to see. Then consider instituting a non holiday holiday. The

(04:35):
holidays are more about spending time with loved ones than
the actual dates themselves. If you can arrange to spend
time with your whole family without causing tough choices, that's
really a huge present you are giving to everyone. It
is definitely better than another tie. In the meantime, This

(04:58):
is Laura. Thanks for and here's to making the most
of our time. Hey, everybody, I'd love to hear from you.
You can send me your tips, your questions, or anything else.
Just connect with me on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram at

(05:20):
Before Breakfast Pod. That's b E the number four then
Breakfast Pod. You can also shoot me an email at
Before Breakfast Podcasts at iHeartMedia dot com. That before Breakfast
is spelled out with all the letters. Thanks so much.
Should I look forward to staying in touch. Before Breakfast

(05:45):
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