214 - Holiday Schedule : Part 2
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Show Notes:
Okay. Deep breath everybody. It is time to tackle the holiday schedule. Dare I say, this is the main source of stress that we encounter during the holidays. There are so many different invitations, obligations, so many people and organizations who are all asking something of us. And today I am here to remind you, you get to choose your yeses and your nos.
For the full episode, hit play above or read through below.
Okay, we are on the second episode of this new podcast series I'm doing, which is all about preparing for the holidays. And my hope is that we will pause and think through every aspect of the holidays that can potentially be burdensome or overwhelming and make a better plan and be really intentional about how we spend our holidays so that we can create traditions and memories that are life-giving and sweet and fun as best as we are able.
Now, I just wanna say before I jump into the episode, I'm sorry that I sound a little bit nasally. I have, I've just been dealing with some sickness, a really bad cold, but I did not want to wait anymore to get you this episode. So I said I'm just gonna go ahead and record it. And today the episode is all about the holiday schedule and this is the thing that can be so overwhelming.
I know I have had holidays in the past where we said yes to everything and there was one Christmas that Will and I looked at each other and we were like, “We hate Christmas. We hate it. This was awful. This was so not fun for anybody, especially us.” And it was our own fault. We've learned a lot from it, but we just wanted to please everybody and we said yes to everything.
And I think that we tried to visit like four different places in the same Christmas Day. Oh, it was just a nightmare. So we've changed our ways. It still can be a lot. The holidays are gonna be a lot. You're gonna be interacting with family. There will be really lovely interactions. There will likely be really hard ones too.
But you know what? I really believe that if we can just stop and think through things and communicate a little bit more ahead of time, it will allow for a little bit smoother interactions and just more enjoyment of the holidays. And so today we're gonna just talk about your schedule. And this is gonna be, this whole series is like this. They're gonna be short episodes, it's gonna be kind of question and answer where I'm asking you these questions.
And I want you to answer them in your mind and personally and in your calendar today as we're talking about your schedule, I want you to be thinking through the things that I'm just prompting you to think through to make your Christmas and Thanksgiving and just all of November and December just more enjoyable.
Step One: Look back on traditions.
Look back at last year, maybe even the year before that too, and see if there are traditions that you really loved or events that you really love or you wanna recreate or repeat in your calendar and see if there are any that you want to get rid of. After you've done that, I want you to take the time and go ahead and schedule your year out from now to the end of the year.
Step Two: Sit down with your calendar.
Again, whether it's like a digital calendar, a paper calendar, write down everything that you can possibly think of in regards to your holiday schedule. What families are you trying to see or visit with? What members of the family, what events are you gonna want to go to at your church?
Are you gonna want to host a friends’ night or is there something going on with your school, with your kids' school’s Christmas programs or church or whatever it is? You need to take the time and just write them into this year's calendar. Now, don't wait any longer. If you are listening to this episode, I want you to do this this week and make sure that everything that you can possibly think of is accounted for.
I also want you to go back and look at all of your favorite traditions. So last week's episode, I talked all about holiday traditions and the things that are meaningful that we planned to have moments of worship in the Christmas season and times with our family and of course just the meaningful traditions that we all want to make sure happen around the holiday season.
I want you to go back and look at that list that you made of all of the holiday traditions that you want to incorporate into your family. And also schedule those into your calendar as you're able. Some, you're not gonna need to schedule because it's gonna be part of something that you're already doing.
But oftentimes these traditions that sound so sweet, they can, they can even be stressful because you haven't taken the time to plan ahead for them. And so make sure that you are writing, you know, bake Christmas cookies with your kids into your calendar and that you've prepped for that, that you've gone shopping for those baked goods. Kind of look through and see if anything comes to your mind as you're doing this.
So step step one is to look back and decide what you want to keep and what you want to get rid of. Step two is to go ahead and start scheduling out from now to the end of the year everything that you can possibly think of in your calendar. Write it down while also looking at the traditions that you wrote down from last week's episode.
Step Three: Make a to-do list.
Okay, so this to-do list is like a set of action items that is different from the schedule, but it goes with the schedule. Does that make sense? It it complements it.
Okay. So for example, I mentioned like buying the baked goods, whatever for your, your Christmas cookies or for me, okay? One of our Christmas traditions is while we're decorating the tree after Thanksgiving, we take pictures with our Polaroid camera, it's little Instax camera, and I save those pictures in our little like holiday book. There have been times where I've almost run out of film or I haven't had any film in my camera. And so one thing, as I'm looking through my holiday traditions and I'm looking at everything on my calendar is on my to-do list, I'm gonna write down by Instax film so that I have that on hand buy so that I have that on hand. Buy Christmas cookie ingredients, so I have that on hand. Buy gingerbread house materials, so I have that on hand.
Anything that you can think of that goes along with these traditions and with your schedule that you need to do, that's an action step. Make sure that you are making a to-do list that you also keep in your planner or wherever you keep your to-do list. Okay? So that's the third step is to make a master to-do list that goes along with all of these things. Guys, this is the nitty gritty stuff that it takes to have a smooth holiday season because when you think about the times you're stressed out, it's when you've forgotten something. It's when you haven't planned ahead. I'll never forget one year, oh my goodness, it was Christmas Eve and I think, I don't even think we had kids yet, but we were like newly married and I was like, “Will, I've gotta run him, or I've gotta run by the grocery store on the way home and get everything for our cream cheese Danish in the morning.”
And all the grocery stores were closed. They closed early on Christmas Eve and I just cried and felt so stressed out and miserable. I'll never forget driving to my car thinking, “Is there any grocery store that's open?” And all of them had closed and that affected our Christmas tradition that year. We weren't able to do what I wanted to do because there was not a grocery store that was open.
And so if you can think ahead and plan ahead, it really will reduce your stress and make sure that you have everything on hand that you need to make those special memories happen.
Step Four: Is there anything missing?
This is like a follow-up question. Ask yourself, is there anything missing? Is there anything missing from these lists that I've made? The holiday traditions list from last week or our schedule from this year.
Is there anything that maybe you did as a child or that you did three years ago that you haven't done in a while that you want to incorporate into your calendar? Anything else that you feel like you need to clear off your calendar? Just take a minute and think through that. Just give yourself a little bit of extra space.
Couple of examples that came to my mind as I was doing this. Number one is I want the kids to buy each other Christmas presents. Is that like a tradition? I mean, not really, not yet for us, but it's something that I want them to start practicing doing. And last year we did it for the first time and it was really sweet. I just gave them each, I think, $5 or $8 to buy something in Walmart or Target or something. And they, they weren't allowed to. Like we all went to the store together. They weren't allowed to look at what the other people were doing, but it was so sweet. And on Christmas morning, they got to experience the joy of giving a gift and letting them open gifts from each other. So that was one thing that came to mind. It's like, oh, I wanna plan an afternoon to do that because it takes an afternoon with four little kids. It's like a whole thing.
Another thing that came to my mind is a few years ago we went to go see the Polar Express in the theaters, and we don't have this DVD or like, we haven't bought it anywhere on a streaming platform. And so we kind of reserved the Polar Express just for one time during the Christmas season while we're in a theater, but we didn't do it last year. And I thought that would be really fun if I could schedule that into our calendar this year. Maybe we could go to the IMAX or just any local theater that's hosting the Polar Express and have a family movie night that way.
That's what I'm talking about. Those little things that come to your mind. Just give yourself some space to see if anything is missing and take the time just to plan in like what are other ways that you can plan in times of worship into your schedule?
One of the things we love to plan into our schedules for worship as a family is advent blocks. Advent blocks are as simple, profound way to teach your children about the season of Advent and what the real meaning of Christmas is all about. There are 27 of these little wooden blocks about the size of small blocks that you'd play with with your kids. You first set out blocks one through 25, and then there's the star block and then earth block. Okay? And so you put the earth block at the very top of number 25 in the star block you put at the top of number one, and each day you read a story in their devotional that it comes with, and you turn the number block to reveal an image that corresponds with that day's story.
Then you move the star block one step closer to the earth block. God is coming to earth to stay. On Christmas Eve, turn the blocks one more time to reveal a special message, which is Emmanuel God with us. So we always read the Devotional Companion at dinnertime and the kids take turns turning each wooden block each night with the stories. And then on Christmas Eve, me and Will are the ones that turn all the blocks to reveal Emmanuel God with this. And it's just really sweet and beautiful and a great practical, tactile way for our kids to experience the season of Advent.
The company that makes these is called Goodkind. And if you go to GoodKind.shop and use the code “Work and Play” when you check out, you'll get 15% off your order. If you place the order in November, head to the link in the show notes or head to GoodKind.shop and use “Work and Play” when you check out.
So just take some time, take some time to look back at what you've done in the past. Go ahead and take the time to schedule everything in to your calendar from now to the end of the year. I want you to look back at your holiday traditions list, make sure you're scheduling those in. Make your master to-do list. And then finally ask yourself, is there anything else do we want to add or take away anything else so that this holiday season can be a blessing to our family and a blessing to others and bring us joy?
If you are looking for a great practical companion to these episodes, I have created the Holiday Guide to Contentment and Joy and it is available to my patrons. So if you go to patreon.com/workandplay and join at any tier, you will get this downloadable PDF, which is the holiday guide, and you can actually print it out and write down everything as we talk about our holiday plans through every single episode.
So I hope that this blesses you, patrons, thank you so much. You keep these episodes coming every single week. I'm so grateful for you and I hope that you guys take the time to create a holiday schedule that is just so meaningful and such a beautiful blessing to you and your family. It's not overwhelming, not stressful, but full just as it should be this holiday season.
Thanks for listening to episode 214 of Work and Play with Nancy Ray. Everything I've mentioned today can be found in the show notes at nancyray.com/podcast/214. And you can always find me over on Instagram @nancyray or at nancyray.com or over at patreon.com/workandplay where you can get the downloadable PDF companion to this podcast series.
Laura Ingalls Wilder said,
“Our hearts grow tenderer with childhood memories and love of kindred, and we are better throughout the year for having, in spirit, become a child again at Christmas time.”
Thanks for listening and I'll catch you next time.
