21: The Holidays
In this episode, we are talking about all things holidays! As we approach the holiday season, we know that while it feels magical and even if we love this time of year, it can also feel overwhelming!
Like many things in life, women often bear a significant portion of the mental load during the holidays.
Mothers are nearly twice as likely as fathers to report high stress at Christmas (23% vs. 12%).
Here are some of our family traditions!:
Matching Pajamas! — Kelly and Carly both do matching PJs for their families. Carly’s family wears theirs to one of their other traditions: The Polar Express!
Christmas Movies — Kelly’s family loves watching Charlie Brown Christmas every year.
Bake Day — Carly’s mom hosts Bake Day, where multiple families come together and bake HUNDREDS of cookies!
Holiday Shopping — Carly and Tim do a “Target Run” every year where the set a budget and spend an hour in Target shopping for each other. Bring a towel or blanket to hide what’s in the cart from the other person! Then go home, sit back to back and wrap the presents!
Kelly learned that shopping early, isn’t all that possible as kids get older and their interests change, daily!
Some other traditions:
Santa — leaving out milk and cookies, a magic key, and some reindeer food is always a fun way to end the night on Christmas Eve.
Local Holiday Events — Are there holiday markets, concerts, or ice skating that you can go to? Only if the magic/effort scale lines up, of course! There are some fun free events too, check out some local listings or follow local cities on Instagram to see where these events are taking place.
Christmas Lights — Grab that hot cocoa and go look for Christmas lights! There is a neighborhood near us that has really fun light displays that play to a radio station. We never miss checking it out during the season.
A holiday tip from us:
You don’t have to overspend to make the season magical.
Maybe read that again. So many times we feel like we need to go above and beyond to create magic for our children.
On average, Americans spend a whopping $875 per person during the winter holiday season (November–December).
A survey of 2,000 parents showed that 66% have pulled an all-nighter to prep for the holidays, averaging five late nights per season.
In online discussions, a widely cited poll showed 49% of parents are willing to go into debt for Christmas gifts, spending an average of $461 per child; notably, 9% are spending $1,000 or more per child.
Despite the stress and effort, oddly enough, 86% of parents still view these elaborate activities as valuable quality family time.
According to Zulily research, 74% of moms say they carry the majority of the holiday work and emotional support; 88% see themselves primarily in the role of "the giver." Additionally, 46% of women reported high or very high levels of holiday-induced anxiety.
Additionally, 1 in 5 say that their elevated stress negatively impacts their kids. Sometimes the most magical thing you can do is cuddle up on the couch and watch a Christmas movie! While trying to keep everything perfect, make sure the effort you are putting in also makes it worth it.
Perfectly Good Advice:
My name is Ann, I am a mother of a collective 5 children and 8 grandchildren.
I was that all out mom, a Christmas tree bursting with gifts.
Christmas morning arrives and the tree is bulging with gifts, yes it is over the top! Gifts are opened, wrapping paper everywhere and gifts everywhere!
As a parent I realized that moments in a child's life is brief and even more brief in the element of wonder, for me, Christmas is one of those wonders!
I will never regret the giving my children the gift of wonder!
At least 3 Pieces of advice: Love with all your heart!
Realize your time is short with your children!
Days are long and years are short!
There are just things in life that have no do overs!
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