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037: Planning a corona Christmas image

037: Planning a corona Christmas

S4 E37 · Life Admin Life Hacks
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348 Plays4 years ago

Mia and Dinah give you top hacks for planning for Christmas in the time of COVID-19.

They talk about how coronavirus will likely impact our plans for Christmas this year including:  

  • budgets being impacted due to the job and income loss facing many families
  • limits to numbers of people at indoor and outdoor parties and events
  • unprecedented demand for online shopping and likely postage delays
  • travel restrictions changing who you may be able to spend Christmas with
  • more time at home.

Mia and Dinah refer back to earlier podcast episodes on Preparing for Christmas (ep 21) and Simplifying Gift Giving (ep 16)  to reflect on key things that help smooth the way including:

  • planning early to reduce the stress
  • establishing and refreshing Christmas tradition reference lists
  • drawing on established life admin techniques including to-do lists, scheduling and decluttering.

They also discuss that for some people preparing for Christmas may feel really overwhelming due to the professional and personal burnout they have been facing this year. It will be important for people to complete the 'stress cycle' to rejuvenate before starting their Christmas preparations.

Dinah talks about her plans so far including:

  • making a contingency travel plan in case travel restrictions remain
  • making a gift spreadsheet including all the people she needs to buy for, what to buy, who will buy and the budget per person
  • starting her shopping for the kids
  • putting together an album of photos on her phone to start making some photo gifts 
  • having a family discussion about the traditions her family want to keep and making sure the traditions they are keen on are scheduled or put in her to-do list
  • scheduling a time in her shared calendar for putting up the Christmas tree and making a gingerbread house
  • making sure she has enough Christmas cards so she is not tempted to buy any more
  • adding a to-do list task for making homemade Christmas baked good for her neighbours.

Mia talks about her plans so far including:

  • thinking about the likely plans for hosting Christmas lunch
  • planning to buy decorations for her new home since she separated with her husband
  • setting up a gift spreadsheet together with her ex-husband to start thinking about what to buy family members
  • ordering some new Christmas books
  • making a Christmas movie reference list so she can start adding movies for her to watch with her children in the lead up to Christmas.
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Transcript

Introduction to Betsy and Carvana

00:00:00
Speaker
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Introducing 'Life Admin Life Hacks' Podcast

00:00:30
Speaker
This is Life Admin Life Hacks, a podcast that gives you techniques, tips, and tools to tackle your life admin more efficiently, to save your time, your money, and improve your household harmony. I'm Dana-Roe Roberts, an operations manager who loves to plan and is finding it quite tricky to accept all the unknowns as we head into a Corona Christmas.
00:00:52
Speaker
I'm Mia Northrop, a researcher and writer who can't wait to celebrate something, anything, with anyone in person. This episode will help you plan what you can after a year of plans waylaid.

Encouraging Listener Reviews

00:01:05
Speaker
Hello and welcome to Life Admin Life Hacks. Before we dive into it, we want to have a thanks to those who have left a review and helped get this podcast into the ears of others who could benefit from these tips and tricks. If you use the Apple Podcast app, all you need to do is go to the Life Admin Life Hacks page, scroll down, tap Rate, click Write a Review if you want to leave a sentence for us.
00:01:27
Speaker
or tell a friend word of mouth is gold in terms of helping our podcast reach others. We appreciate everyone who gets on board with sharing the love.

Christmas in the Pandemic: An Overview

00:01:37
Speaker
This episode, Mira and I started talking the other day about how Corona would be impacting our Christmas plans and we thought about it and thought it would probably impact the advice we'd previously given in our episode 21.
00:01:51
Speaker
Yeah. So episode 21 was a deep dive into Christmas prep. We know this year that in the parts of the world that celebrate Christmas, we're going to be celebrating quite differently from each other and certainly compared to the past due to the various restrictions around socializing and social distancing. We're recording this in October and here in Victoria, we're still having to wear masks when we leave the house. We still have a five kilometer travel rule. We can't go for more than five Ks from our home.
00:02:19
Speaker
All the stores and services are still closed except for essential services. School has finally gone back, thank goodness. The rest of Australia is carrying on mostly as normal. They might have some restrictions around large gatherings, but we're all in very, very different head spaces and very different circumstances. And certainly for those of us who've experienced
00:02:40
Speaker
economic hardship due to job losses or reduced working hours. We might have less financial security this year. You might have been sick or known people who have been sick or you might have lost a loved one due to the pandemic. It's been hard also for those who have lost someone that they couldn't say goodbye to properly due to all the travel restrictions. So there's a lot of people grieving. There'll be a lot of people who are isolated from family members and feeling lonely at this time of year.
00:03:05
Speaker
So there's lots of things that have changed and lots of knowns and unknown knowns and all of those things. So it's important to think about both what we don't know and also what we do know. For us, we certainly don't know where we're going to be able to go for Christmas. Borders are still closed in many states of Australia. In Victoria at the moment, we're still, well in metropolitan Melbourne, still subject to the five kilometre rule. We don't know how many people we'll be able to celebrate with because
00:03:34
Speaker
There's been different restrictions on how many people are allowed to gather indoors. We don't know if we'll be able to go shopping, whether all of the stores that we like to go to will be open. And interestingly, we also don't know if there might be food shortages because we have seen the impact that the coronavirus has had on
00:03:53
Speaker
and things like fruit pickers and meat warehouses where some foods might be more difficult to

New Christmas Norms and Adaptations

00:04:00
Speaker
get. But Mia, what do we know? So we do know that there's probably not going to be any large Christmas parties. It will be about small gatherings. So it's going to be important to prioritise who you want to be spending time with in the lead up to Christmas when you have those normal catch-ups, but also on Christmas Day. We do know there's going to be an unprecedented year for online shopping.
00:04:22
Speaker
and likely postage delays. Here in Australia, Australia Post has been dealing with Christmas-level online shopping and post since March. God knows when it's actually Christmas time what that postal service is going to look like.
00:04:38
Speaker
key thing there is to get in early. Now we know sitting on Santa's knee, for those of you who liked the annual tradition of getting a photo of the kids with Santa, that's probably not going to happen this year. And it's likely that we're going to be spending a lot more time at home. So some of those home-based traditions, if you like to listen to watch movies or listen to Christmas music or whatever Christmasy things you've got going on, there'll be a lot more of that.
00:05:01
Speaker
and really budgets might be tighter for a lot of us, so working out how you can stick to that budget can be more important than ever. I guess all up it's an opportunity to have a more meaningful Christmas, don't you think? It's probably less of a focus on gifts and glamorous social events and more about just connecting with people and doing local things and really getting into the spirit of giving.
00:05:20
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, a lot of talk about the silver linings of coronavirus and thinking about that it's given you more time to spend at home and with those closest to you. So it is important to think about what the silver linings are and to really think about what's the most important thing to you about Christmas and planning for that where you can.
00:05:40
Speaker
In our past exploration of preparing for Christmas, we did talk about some of the things that help smooth the way from a life admin perspective. And one of the first things was around planning earlier in the year to give yourself lots of lead time to do things, but also to make the joy last longer. And I think that definitely applies this year. So I think it's important to start thinking early, particularly when things like online shopping might take a bit longer than usual.
00:06:07
Speaker
Another thing we talked about was establishing and remembering Christmas traditions, using reference lists and to-do lists. And again, really great to do that and to refresh those lists as we head into maybe a different kind of Christmas this year.
00:06:22
Speaker
Yeah, so you might want to, depending on what app you're using for those lists about the kinds of activities you do or the tasks that you do in the lead up, you might want to scan that now and think, well, what can I do? What needs to change? What can I delete off this list for this year?
00:06:38
Speaker
I spent some time talking about what some of those traditions might be and I might be reading Christmas books or watching movies or decorating the tree together or going to Carols by Candlelight. So this year, think about what are the things you still can do. You might add some extra things you can do at home if things like Carols by Candlelight or going and seeing Christmas lights in the city, I'm not going to be an option. Another thing we talked about was drawing on your established life admin tools and techniques such as scheduling,
00:07:07
Speaker
decluttering, shared calendars. Scheduling and shared calendars might not be as much of an issue this year. There's unlikely to be school Christmas concerts and as many Christmas parties, but decluttering is still something to think about. Many of you have probably taken the chance during some of the lockdowns to do some decluttering, but it's a great time to declutter, particularly kids' clothes and toys to make sure that you add the right sorts of things to the gift lists.
00:07:36
Speaker
We've got a couple of episodes where we talk about gift giving. So episode 21, where we talk about Christmas, but also we have a specific podcast on gift giving that's full of hacks around how to make the planning in terms of the ideas for people are much simpler and then how to shop most effectively and even get organized with the wrapping. So thinking about gift giving in categories where, for example, you might give
00:08:01
Speaker
all of your extended family, there's going to be books or puzzles. Or you might decide that all the school teachers this year, they're all getting plants. I might have just given something away there. But there's some hacks there that are going to make this a lot more streamlined for you. So definitely think about some of the shortcuts you can take there.
00:08:22
Speaker
and also planning your festive meal and getting others to help. For some of you, it might be the first time you need to host your own Christmas if the travel restrictions don't ease and you're no longer able to share it with who you do, particularly if they live interstate or overseas. So really thinking about planning that meal so that you make it less stressful and for those who are coming, that you get others to help.
00:08:44
Speaker
But before we get into more Christmas detail, I just wanted to acknowledge that for a lot of people, after this year, the thought of having to conjure up a magical Christmas just might be feeling really overwhelming.

Managing Pandemic Burnout and Stress

00:08:59
Speaker
I listened to this great Brené Brown podcast episode on her Unlocking Ask Pep episode where she interviewed Emily and Amelia Nagoski on burnout. And they talked about the rates of professional and parental burnout kind of being off the charts this year because
00:09:14
Speaker
we've had to cope with a lot of change and juggling so many different things. They define burnout as a decreased sense of accomplishment where you kind of have a sense of futility, like nothing you do really makes a difference. You might feel emotional exhaustion where you're just so tired, you're so fatigued from just doing too much for too long.
00:09:35
Speaker
And you might have an increased sense of depersonalization where you stop caring, you're losing your compassion, you're depleted in terms of empathy. If this sounds like you, it's not surprising, you're certainly not alone. Women have been doing the lion's share of adapting for the pandemic in terms of balancing work and home learning and playtime.
00:09:57
Speaker
They've taken on a lot of the workload and the mental load. And a lot of us have been suffering from really chronic stress. And women also do the lion's share when it comes to Christmas preparation. They carry the mental load in terms of coming up with gift ideas and often buying the gifts and preparing actual Christmas day.
00:10:14
Speaker
So, if this is you, if you're thinking, oh my God, this year has been horrific and I can't believe I now have to make Christmas happen, then do something about breaking and completing the stress cycle that we've been going through. And really, this comes down to doing as much physical activity as you can, getting those endorphins going, if it's a run or a yoga or a swimming, whatever feels good to you, start moving your body, getting the stress out of your body.
00:10:40
Speaker
breathing either through just long slow breaths or meditation, mindfulness, whatever you can, whatever's comfortable for you makes a difference in down regulating your nervous system and engaging that parasympathetic nervous system. You want to get some positive social interactions going on, catching up with people,
00:11:00
Speaker
laughing with people, getting some hugs, having a good cry, and if you're comfortable or if creative expression nourishes you by making some music or writing or knitting up a storm or whatever it takes,
00:11:13
Speaker
all of these things will really help to energize you and get you in the headspace and in the physical state to take on Christmas this year. Thanks, Mia. Those are pretty great tips for people. And I guess I also encourage people to seek professional help if it's really feeling like it's too overwhelming. So, Dinah, how are you going to do it this year? Where are you up to? Well, tell us all about it.
00:11:39
Speaker
We usually love going away at Christmas. So it does feel, you know, I guess it does feel a bit sad for us. Last year we were actually in London. It was an amazing Christmas. Really glad that we took the
00:11:53
Speaker
leap and took the kids to Europe, such lucky timing, because I'm not sure when we would be able to get back there. So we're still fingers crossed. I think we're dreaming, though, that we might be able to get to Queensland from Victoria. My husband's family lives there. He's super keen to see them. But if we can't do that, we have made a contingency plan. So we have made another booking, not for actual Christmas week, but for mid-January
00:12:18
Speaker
on Airbnb with really limited cancellation fees so that we know we've got a little trip booked in locally just in case. When was the last time you had Christmas in Melbourne? Oh, I can't remember.
00:12:28
Speaker
Maybe five years ago, maybe. Yeah. And so are you likely to be, if you can't, or you might not be able to go away, will it be at your house or with your parents? Do you know yet? So I think it'll just be the four of us for the actual Christmas lunch. So just my, our family, but we already have sort of tentative plans for Christmas Eve and Christmas night.
00:12:51
Speaker
So I guess I'm less worried about that. I'm more just hoping that we might be able to get to Queensland at some stage, even if not for Christmas to see my husband's family. Yeah. Okay. And what are you doing for gifts this year?

Budgeting and Gift Planning

00:13:04
Speaker
So we actually sat down the other day, my husband and I, and set a budget per person as a guide. I thought it was a really useful thing to like put it on this spreadsheet and add it all up, including teachers, friends, godchildren.
00:13:17
Speaker
Because then when you add the total, it really helps reinforce how much it all adds up to and helps you not get so carried away. I have already started shopping. I looked at the gift reference list I have and I got one gift each from that for the kids so that we know we already have something. And just for those who, in terms of the spreadsheet, let's talk, we haven't really talked about the detail of what you might have on this spreadsheet. So how's your spreadsheet for gift set up?
00:13:43
Speaker
So I've set up a spreadsheet that's got basically the long list of every person that we need to buy for and then what the gifts are and then who's allocated for buying it and then final column which just sets out what's the maximum amount you're allowed to spend so that it really puts some boundaries and people don't get carried away. Gotcha.
00:14:04
Speaker
All right. So you've gone through that gift reference lists, which is the wish list that you add to during the year and you started populating the spreadsheet with that. Yeah. And I haven't finished doing that, but I have bought, I sort of thought about the gifts or the people where there's longer lead times. And I have one particular friend in Dubai.
00:14:24
Speaker
where we have an annual tradition to send each other, we send each other a Christmas decoration. So I've already gone out and bought that. I bought a Corona Christmas decoration. I was doing research in this episode. There's a lot of Corona-based Christmas decorations out there, mostly involving masks and sanitizer and toilet paper. Yes. What did you get? I went for all three.
00:14:53
Speaker
masks on the centers and the hand sanitizer and the roll of toilet paper.
00:14:59
Speaker
It's a really fun tradition, but I do need to always make sure I get in early because the post to Dubai takes quite a long time. So that's all packed up and ready to send the next time I venture out to the post office. I have also started thinking about one side of our family, do the sort of bad Santa thing, sort of it's a variation of Kris Kringle, rather than giving for a designated person. They kind of all go into a basket and random whenever we do it. Cause my husband and I both have to buy a gift.
00:15:28
Speaker
We always put in one really nice gift and one really bad gift because that makes it really fun because some people get really good gifts and some people get really dodgy gifts. So I haven't yet found my bad gift for this year. So I've got that on my to-do list to make sure that I do.
00:15:44
Speaker
And I've also planned some photo gifts for grandparents. I've started an album on my phone. So really, as I'm recording this episode, it's a reminder to schedule in some time to get that done, because they usually take a few weeks to actually get produced and sent out. Do you think the traditions that will have to play out differently for you, for your family this year? So I actually took the opportunity to sit down with the family on Sunday night and
00:16:10
Speaker
and really have a chat about the Christmas traditions and what they really like. So what should we continue and anything that they sort of feel like they've grown a bit out of or on any new traditions that they wanted us to start.
00:16:25
Speaker
We don't have that many regular traditions because we always travel, so we haven't had the Christmas reference list, tradition references that you've always had me in. But we did agree a few things. So the first one was an advent calendar. So the kids said they still really like to have an advent calendar. So I actually picked some up at Woolworth this week. So I know that it's already there. And it's a good daily reminder when the kids open up the chocolate and I often
00:16:50
Speaker
force them to listen to A Christmas Carol or two when they ask to open the next number on the calendar.
00:16:59
Speaker
The kids were also quite keen on fun Christmas crackers. I have been starting to look for fun ones because one year we had ones that had little racing cars inside them, which was fun. So it was like a game that we played after Christmas lunch. So I have started having a bit of a browse. I've added it to my to-do list. I've even thought maybe we might make our own. Yeah, we did that a couple of Christmases ago. I had that very briefly on my
00:17:25
Speaker
on my reference list of Christmas activities. I thought, this will be a nice tradition and we did it once and then I deleted it off my list. Thanks. Bye for now. Also, I was starting to think about something about food, so I actually really love Christmas pudding. Oh my God. I reached the supermarket yesterday and I literally stood there and just stared at it thinking,
00:17:48
Speaker
Can I? Should I? Can I just go now? I could eat it. I can do what I'm ready to eat it. My favourite. Custard. Oh, yum. Me too. So I actually never have made my own. My mum makes a great Christmas pudding. And so I just actually did a bit of research and it says you should make it about six weeks before. So I'm not sure whether I want to do it or not. I haven't quite decided. So I've added it to my to-do list with a date for early November to decide if I want to do it or not, depending, I guess.
00:18:16
Speaker
how I'm feeling, because I'm probably suffering a bit from that feeling of burnout at the moment. And if not, then I'll buy one around that time. I have bought one in the past from a great place, like in Dalesford or somewhere. So I will buy one or make one in early November. Another thing that I love to do, even if we go away, we always put our Christmas tree up early in December. My son's birthday is in early December. So the rule is they cannot go up until his birthday is over.
00:18:47
Speaker
his festival needs to be over before we can start the next festival. So it sort of dictates when we can put them up, but I have already scheduled in the time in the calendar to make sure that we've got a good couple of hours so that the whole family's home and we can enjoy putting them all up together. Yeah, it takes time. Do you order you in a tree or do you have a plastic tree? What do you do for a tree?
00:19:08
Speaker
Normally, we have a plastic tree. We have occasionally bought a Christmas tree from the local scout troop. So if we're home this year, we probably will buy one from them. If we manage to get to Queensland, I'll go the plastic one so that it doesn't slowly decay while we're away.
00:19:26
Speaker
What other activities are you going to include to make it feel festive this year? With the few years we have made a gingerbread house, my daughter has particularly loved doing that. She's gone the whole hog the last time we did it, which included making stained glass windows from boiled sweets and putting them in the gingerbread house.
00:19:47
Speaker
Yeah, so I've actually scheduled that in the calendar. She's finishing school quite early in December. So I've already scheduled in a whole day. That's going to be Gingerbread House Day so that we can actually go buy all the ingredients and cook it together. So that'll be another fun tradition that she's looking forward to. The kids also mentioned, particularly my son, that he loves candy cane, something which I think is disgusting.

Continuing Family Traditions

00:20:10
Speaker
But he's really keen because he both loves them and giving them. So he wants to continue that tradition of giving a Christmas card together with a candy cane to all of his school friends. So I haven't bought the candy canes yet, but I did check about Christmas cards in terms of the very super cheap Christmas cards that can go to 10 and 11 year old kids. So we've got a big box of those, which is big enough. So I don't need to get any more. And knowing that means I'm not tempted to pick up a pack of 20 when I shop.
00:20:40
Speaker
And our final tradition is making gifts for our neighbors. So we always have, whenever we've been around in early December, made shortbread and mince pies as gifts for our neighbors. I haven't scheduled that in yet because my daughter, who is a really great cook, she actually, as I mentioned, finishing school in early December, but I have added it to her to-do list for the summer holidays. So she can hopefully get doing that while I'm happily still working in early December.
00:21:10
Speaker
Yummy. I feel like those things, when I actually put those on my to-do list and scheduled them into my calendar, I already got that little buzz of looking forward to Christmas time, so it was pretty exciting. Yeah, good. I have noted, because we live near a Flemington race course in Melbourne where the Spring Racing Carnival is a big part of that area,
00:21:32
Speaker
that they put their Melbourne Cup signage up just recently. And that's always marked the beginning of the silly season here in Melbourne, when all the social events start happening and it just gets busy and nutty. And it's all online this year, the whole Melbourne Cup. I mean, they're still having little races, of course, but all of those festivities, I just kind of maybe realise how different the next few months are going to be.

Simplifying Christmas Post-Separation

00:21:57
Speaker
So this will be the second Christmas that I've had since separating from my husband. And last year we hosted Christmas. We had about 10 people over and it was a really lovely day. And we'll probably take the same approach this year, if we can, in terms of having family over, just some close family over. But I've got a few added things I need to do this year. I need to buy decorations for my place. Last year, you know, I was living in a small apartment and I just was like, I can't even get my head around decorating this place.
00:22:25
Speaker
And I have no decorations at all, so I need to get some. Is it exciting or overwhelming, the thought of starting with a clean slate? It is. To be honest, I had some awesome decorations, but I spent a lot of time looking for and buying and assembling in my collection. So I'll have a chat with you and we might go through the current box and split it up a bit.
00:22:51
Speaker
I find it daunting because I find it hard to find decorations I actually like. They're either completely tacky or if they're a little bit stylish, they also seem to be incredibly expensive. I feel like I've seen a tree. I might make a wreath. I've made a wreath in the past with a door and I'll just get a couple of things. I only need a couple of things, but I do definitely want to decorate this here.
00:23:15
Speaker
So I too have set up my gift spreadsheet with my ex-husband and we started to list ideas for various family members and started to buy presents, which has been fun. I kind of forgot that it was the Black Friday sales, you know, all of that stuff happened overseas. There's lots of sales online at the moment. So I started to have a poke around for some of the things that might be quite popular. I'm very aware that
00:23:40
Speaker
the whole of Victoria is going to be online shopping. So I really want to get it early on some of those more popular gifts for the kids, toys that are, you know, just on trend at the moment, for example.
00:23:52
Speaker
I've also ordered some new Christmas books to read. So that's one of the traditions that we have is we read Christmas books from December 1. And we've branched from picture book territory into some chapter books. So I got letters from Father Christmas that Tolkien wrote. I didn't even know he wrote a book about it. I have never heard that this Tolkien's got a father. You have to tell me if it's any good. I'm super keen for you. Yeah, he wrote it to his kids each year. And it's a collection of those letters.
00:24:21
Speaker
And my kids, because they're so into movies and TV now, I've actually also started to note Christmas movies on the different streaming platforms. And I've started making a Christmas movie list on those platforms so that on Friday night, so we're having movie night, we can start watching Christmas classics. That's sort of exciting and sort of
00:24:41
Speaker
awful. I think I've watched too much children's television this year. I know, I know. I've just, some of it's slip pickens, but you only need maybe four, four or five.

Early Holiday Preparations and COVID Guidelines

00:24:53
Speaker
And I'm also starting to think about the other, the food items that we might need to order with plenty of lead time. You know, obviously, usually in Christmas, you need to, if you've got a particular ham that you need to have or turkey or seafood or whatever it might be from a certain supplier, you might
00:25:10
Speaker
have the habit anyway of getting in early with your orders, but this year, crucially than ever, I think it makes sense to do that. We'll buy our Christmas tree from the local scouts, assuming they do it. I'm hoping that they do it. Otherwise, I don't know, we don't have a plan B yet. Might drive into a forest somewhere. We've done that in the past. Big pine plantations down near our holiday house if we can get down that way.
00:25:36
Speaker
Well, we might, who knows, just decorate one of the plants that we have bought this year. I think the whole world's bought a lot of indoor plants this year. We might just throw some tinsel on one. And flowers, things for the table, there's actual decoration. I'll be ordering all of that upfront and booze. So, Mia, it sounds like you've thought about just about everything. Any last things that are still on your mind that you're planning around?
00:25:59
Speaker
Well, I guess I'm thinking about some of the social gatherings that we often have in the lead up to Christmas, might be just local neighborly catch ups. And I guess this year, the focus will really be just having them outdoors, because having people over will have to be small groups. So we might be just thinking more creatively about picnics, a lot of picnics happening in Melbourne at the moment, or outdoor barbecues or whatever it might be.
00:26:24
Speaker
I'm liking the idea that there'll be that less pressure, fewer social commitments and a bit of extra time on your hands at this time of year when you're often trying to type loose ends with work and the school year is coming to a crescendo. I think we're all going to enjoy the slower pace.

Connecting with Joyful People

00:26:41
Speaker
It's interesting because I've actually been reading the new Marie Kondo book, which is Joy at Work. And one of the things that she talks about in the book is tidying up your contacts. So really thinking about your network, like about making sure you only connect with people who give you joy. And I think although it's relevant at work, I think it's particularly relevant when you think about a Corona Christmas.
00:27:07
Speaker
if you're limited with the number of people that you can spend time with to really think about trying to prioritise the people that give you the most joy rather than perhaps going to Christmas celebrations you might have gone to previously that actually filled you with dread. Oh, yeah, absolutely. I think if anything's shown us this year, it's
00:27:29
Speaker
know, who are the people that you can really rely on and help make your days brighter during tough times. So yes, make sure you spend time with those and not just you have taps on your shoulder and ask, do you want to catch up? So I think that's all of our hacks for a Corona Christmas. So we hope these hacks will make your Corona Christmas as joyful as it can

Top Tips for a Joyful Christmas

00:27:52
Speaker
be. Our top hacks are
00:27:54
Speaker
Plan what you can now, particularly any online shopping. Consult your traditions list or create one and think about how you might need to modify your traditions for Corona.
00:28:04
Speaker
And remember, small steps now will make the time closer to Christmas less stressful and much more fun. If you'd like to join us on our Life Admin journey, please head to our Facebook page, Life Admin Life Hacks, to follow us and share your thoughts on what we're doing. And feel free to post any comments or certainly post suggestions that we might be able to use. We hope to see you there. Thanks for listening. Show notes for this episode are available at lifeadminlifehacks.com
00:28:30
Speaker
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